Solomon Riley Presents Negro Coney Island (2021)
Often discussed as an urban legend or a failed architectural project, Solomon Riley Presents Negro Coney Island redresses the erasure around Riley’s completed amusement park for the Black Residents in Harlem and the Bronx in 1924 on Hart Island. Working across archives, contemporary footage of Hart Island, and speculative interviews with key Black cultural producers of the time, including Riley, the film reimagines what we know about Negro Coney Island and its legacy with New York City’s still active potter’s field, Hart Island.
Director: Ayanna Dozier
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Ricky Goldman as Solomon Riley |
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Selamawit Worku as Elizabeth Riley |
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Rayly Aquino as Harold Curtis Brown |
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Moses Jeune as Jimmie Daniels |
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Crackhead Barney as Florence Mills |
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Terrance Livingston Jr. as James Van Der Zee |
| Directing | Ayanna Dozier | Director |