BRAINTREE -- Black Catholics have been a presence in Boston and throughout the U.S since long before the Revolutionary War, but they are often overlooked in the history of Christianity in this country.

A new documentary produced by the Archdiocese of Boston hopes to change that.

"Hidden in Plain Sight," a documentary about the history of Black Catholics in Boston, premiered at the archdiocese's Pastoral Center in Braintree on Feb. 10. The film was directed by Archdiocese of Boston Video Producer Ann Gennaro. Its title comes from M. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita of theology at Boston College. In the documentary, Copeland says that to be Black and Catholic is to be "hidden in plain sight."

"As a storyteller, I love telling stories that are right beneath our noses that we don't always see or recognize or know are even there because we're so busy going through the day-to-day, the emotions of our lives, that we don't see the stories hidden in plain sight," Gennaro said.

Gennaro is a lifelong Catholic and has lived in Boston for over a decade. This was the first time she was exposed to the history of Black Catholics in the archdiocese.

"This is something we are all called to do," she said. "We all, especially as Catholics, are called to the stories hidden in plain sight, so that we all might strive to be the saints we're called to be by seeing the saints that already live among us and are right next to us."

The Pastoral Center auditorium was packed with viewers for the premiere, many of whom were interviewed for the film. Students from St. John Paul II Catholic Academy Lower Mills Campus in Dorchester also attended the screening.

"In the Church, we say that our youth, they're the Church now," Lorna DesRoses, an evangelization consultant for ethnic communities in the Archdiocese of Boston, said in remarks to the audience before the showing. "So this is our way of encouraging you, our Church, now, to help us pass on the faith and share the stories that you hear today within this screening."

Bishop Cristiano Barbosa, the archdiocese's secretary for evangelization and discipleship, opened the screening with a prayer. He thanked the Black Catholic community "for your resilience and faith" and said that their stories must be heard.

"Tell the stories," he said. "Record the stories. We need this. That is the truth of our lives and communities."

The relationship between Black Catholics and the larger Church has not always been a positive one. Many Black Catholics were enslaved, some by religious orders. Churches were segregated, and in some of them, Black people could not receive Communion until after Mass. Some Black Catholics left for more welcoming Protestant churches, while others continued to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament despite the discrimination they faced while doing so.

"It is a particular fortitude of faith to say 'I am here, because this is where Jesus is,'" DesRoses said in the documentary.

The documentary tells the story of the first Black Catholic bishop in the U.S., Bishop James Augustine Healy, who passed as a white man to avoid persecution. As a priest, Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick of Boston took Father Healy under his wing, and Father Healy served in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross before becoming Bishop of Portland, Maine. Catholic layman Robert Ruffin was an outspoken opponent of slavery and champion of Black Catholics in Boston. He co-founded the National Black Catholic Congress, which convened in the late 19th century.

By the 20th century, the National Congress had stopped meeting and Boston's Black Catholic community was disparate. They united through the Blessed Sacrament Mission, established by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. At their Mission Center in Boston, Black children received catechesis and participated in after-school activities. The sisters established themselves at St. Richard Parish in Roxbury, which became a hub for Boston's Black Catholics.

"They felt comfortable to be themselves" there, DesRoses said in the documentary.

St. Richard's, purchased by Cardinal Richard Cushing, served as a base for Black Catholics to confront racism and poverty in their communities. It was a place where Black Catholics could serve as leaders. When St. Richard's closed, the Black Catholic community was disunited once again. In the 1980s, Sister Thea Bowman persuaded Cardinal Bernard Law to attend the first National Black Catholic Congress in almost 100 years. Cardinal Law gathered with Black Catholic leaders to address the community's concerns and hopes. The archdiocese established an Office of Black Catholics, and the current Black Catholic parish, St. Katharine Drexel in Dorchester, was established by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley in 2005.

"As Black Catholics, I think the thing that all of us can learn, whether we're Black Catholic or whatever Catholic we are, is that we are here," DesRoses said in a panel discussion after the film. "We are part of the Church. Jesus is here, and there is a fortitude of faith despite the circumstances that I think we can all learn from our Black Catholic brothers and sisters in faith."

The panel discussion was moderated by Wendy Mejia, the Archdiocese of Boston's director of multicultural ministries. DesRoses was joined by two other subjects who appeared in the documentary: Rashaun Martin, an educator with a long career in Boston's Catholic and public schools; and Richard Cellini, a scholar of the history of slavery in the U.S.

In the documentary, Meyer Chambers said that he was born Black and baptized Catholic. Cellini, who is white, joked that he was born Catholic and baptized Black.

"There's something very special and unique and particular about the Black Catholic experience," Cellini said, "and I've probably never felt more included and felt more fellowship and more love than I have throughout my time at St. Katharine Drexel."

He said that being in the documentary "was like a second baptism."

Martin's great-grandmother came to Boston from the Southern U.S. His grandmother was taught by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. As a freshman in college, he went to the 1997 National Black Catholic Congress.

"I've been blessed to have been a part of a generational Black Catholic family," he said.

DesRoses said that the Black Catholics of the past are a "cloud of witnesses" who provide an example of how to live and express faith in times of suffering.

"As a Black Catholic, that gives me hope, that gives me strength, and please, God, may that give me courage," she said.