Alternate title: Dawn to Dawn
Co-makers: Josef Berne, Cameron MacPherson, and Seymour Stern
Production: Cameron MacPherson Productions
Original format: 35mm sound film 1.37:1
Story: Josef Berne and Cameron MacPherson
Camera: Paul Ivano
Editors: Josef Berne and Seymour Stern
Music: Cameron MacPherson
Featuring Julie Hayden, Ole M. Ness, and Frank Eklof

The characters in Black Dawn are more like archetypal figures than particular people. They really convey a sense that this is a universal drama being enacted rather than a story about these particular individuals. http://johncfilmnotes.blogspot.com

Adapted by Seymour Stern, director Josef Berne's film tells of a farm girl in conflict with her authoritarian father over a young drifter. Virtually silent, the film's strength is its lyrical realism -- its pastoral scenes are shot on a real farm and don't suppress the harsh reality of American agriculture. -Jan-Christopher Horak

Josef Berne (1904-1964) emigrated from Kiev to the United States as a child, though little is known about his life before coming to films. After directing Black Dawn (1933), aka Dawn to Dawn, he spent the rest of his career kicking around Hollywood, directing Yiddish language features, as well as "Soundies" shorts, and B-Films at Columbia. -Jan-Christopher Horak

As a youth, Seymour Stern (1908-1978) watched D. W. Griffith film Orphans of the Storm. During 20-30s, he acted as a special advisor to Carl Laemmle at Universal and helped Sergei Eisenstein in U.S. and Mexico. As co-editor of Experimental Cinema, he attempted several experimental productions, only Black Dawn (1934) completed. Later he became Griffith's "authorized" biographer." -David Shepard/Bruce Posner