The Real Birth Of A Nation
August 15, 2018 1:32 AM   Subscribe

"The oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director, Within Our Gates is a searing account of the US racial situation during the early twentieth century, including the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of Southern blacks to cities in the North, and the emergence of the “New Negro”. Directed by Oscar Micheaux, the film is one of the earliest and finest examples in the genre of “race films”. Produced outside the main Hollywood machine, these films were purposefully made for an all-black audience, featured black actors, and became important arenas through which representations of African-Americans in mass culture were contested." (Within Our Gates YouTube) - Industrious African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux designed a cunning film that is in so many ways an inversion of The Birth of a Nation. Where Griffith simplifies history, Within Our Gates complicates it. - This movie is very much the antithesis of Birth. The black characters are given a depth and humanity that would have been denied them in standard Hollywood productions. Sylvia in particular is amazing considering the period: she is a female character who manages to be independent and intelligent, - Restored 'Race Films' Find New Audiences (NPR)
posted by The Whelk (7 comments total) 67 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, I had no idea that these types of films were even a thing during this era. Powerful stuff, thanks for the post.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:58 AM on August 15, 2018


MUBI have a useful list of 116 notable films by black directors, from Micheaux through to the latest Spike Lee.
posted by biffa at 3:52 AM on August 15, 2018 [4 favorites]


Oh hey I saw this last year!

The "rickety plot turns" they talk about may be due to Micheaux being a self-taught filmmaker; he was also on such a tight budget that he sometimes did only one take of some scenes because they didn't have the film stock for more. This is indie filmmaking at its indie-est. But he has some pointed social commentary going on as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:42 AM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]


Micheaux has a Roanoke, Virginia connection. He lived, worked and filmed some here. There's a historic marker in his honor near downtown. Interesting man.
posted by PHINC at 6:50 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


Nice post. I've had this film on my Letterboxd watchlist for a while but haven't seen it yet. I saw Micheaux's later film Body and Soul at Ebertfest with the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project doing the soundtrack and was impressed although the existing prints are missing some footage and the film was done with a tiny budget.

Birth of a Nation is really worse than I thought it could be. I knew that it was problematic but boy is it racist garbage.
posted by octothorpe at 7:23 AM on August 15, 2018


Birth of a Nation is really worse than I thought it could be. I knew that it was problematic but boy is it racist garbage.

One part that threw me about Birth Of a Nation was - there are some moments that feel like Griffith knew how problematic his racism was, and tried to come up with some mealy-mouthed CYA statements to wave it away. That just made it worse.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:30 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


The linked NPR article references Pioneers of African-American Cinema. This is available as a DVD set. It and Pioneers of African-American Cinema Short Films can be streamed from kanopy.com .
posted by llc at 5:25 PM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


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