A pioneering but little-known Black filmmaker will be celebrated in a free screening and talk on Sunday, March 22 at The Last Picture House, 325 E. 2nd St., Davenport.
The life of Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951), Illinois-born and a former Iowa resident, will be revealed in the feature-length documentary “Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking” on Sunday at 2 p.m. at The Last Picture House. A post-screening discussion follows with special guest historian Jordan Bell, (by Zoom) from Roanoke, Virginia.
Micheaux’s 1920 silent film “Within Our Gates” will screen at 4:15 p.m. Admittance to this special event is free, and seating for both shows is limited.
Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is joining with sponsors Azubuike African American Council for the Arts, Friends of MLK, Inc., the Rock Island County NAACP Chapter, QC Film Office and the Northwest Illinois Film Office to present these important Black history films.
Directed by Francisco Zippel, the 2021 documentary features on-camera interviews with Morgan Freeman, John Singleton, Chuck D, Amma Asante, Haskel Wexler, Kevin Willmott, and other film luminaries, discussing the extraordinary achievements and contemporary legacy of Micheaux and his films.
Born in 1884 in Metropolis, Ill., Oscar Micheaux became a prolific writer, authoring seven novels and was the first major Black American filmmaker to write, direct and produce independent feature films showing contemporary Black life, challenging Black stereotypes, and opposing racial injustice, according to a Truth First press release.
“He was Spike Lee and Tyler Perry before Spike Lee and Tyler Perry, and especially back during a time of segregation,” Bell said in a Monday phone interview. “And there wasn't a lot of financial support for Black filmmakers during that time. So he was a pioneer in the film realm of things.”
“He was the first of his kind, a Black filmmaker, especially during that time making race films,” the Virginia historian said. “I would say he sort of inspired all the filmmakers that we have today.”
Sunday night’s Oscars recognized African-American writer/director Ryan Coogler, actor Michael B. Jordan and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw with Academy Awards for “Sinners,” and they “stand on the shoulders of people like Oscar Micheaux,” Bell added. “He was just the first of his kind and a very important legacy that many of us still watch films that were inspired by his work.”
Writing about his life
In 1904, Micheaux moved to South Dakota and became a successful homesteader amid a predominantly blue-collar white population, according to his bio on the NAACP website.
The government's Homestead Act allowed citizens to acquire a free plot of land to farm. Although the act included Black Americans, discrimination kept many Blacks from pursuing a homestead. Micheaux began writing about his experiences on the frontier, submitting articles to the press as well as writing novels.
Published in 1913, his first novel “The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer” was loosely based on his own life as a homesteader and the failure of his marriage. The novel attracted attention from a film production company in Los Angeles, which offered to adapt the book into a film.
Negotiations fell apart when Micheaux wanted to be directly involved in the film's production, and he decided to produce the film himself.
He founded the Micheaux Film & Book Company in Sioux City, Iowa and in 1919 produced his first silent film “The Homesteader” based on his self-published first novel. The silent black-and-white film features a Black man who enters a rocky marriage with a Black woman, played by the pioneering African-American actress Evelyn Preer, despite being in love with a white woman.
Depicting realistic relationships between Black and white people, the film gained praise from critics, one of them calling it a “historic breakthrough, a creditable, dignified achievement.”
Sometimes considered to be his response to D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 “Birth of a Nation,” Micheaux wrote, directed, and produced his second film “Within Our Gates,” a silent film that portrays the contemporary racial injustice in the U.S. during the Jim Crow years, and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. The film was heavily censored upon release in 1920 due to its raw portrayal of white supremacy and interracial sexual violence. It is the oldest surviving film by a Black film director.
Once thought to be lost, the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center restored the film from a single print discovered in Spain.
Making history in Roanoke
From 1922 to 1925, Micheaux operated out of Roanoke, Virginia -- living and working on Henry Street in the historic Gainsboro neighborhood. At the time Gainsboro was an active participant in the global Harlem Renaissance, and Micheaux played a crucial part in that, producing eight films for Black audiences at a time when they were prohibited from going to see more mainstream fare at white theaters.
"During that time, he was just an entrepreneur filmmaker that was making films. But now, he's recognized around the world for his films," said Bell, who has an expertise about Gainsboro. “Gainsboro was a self-thriving African-American community in the early and mid-19th century. It had hundreds of businesses, Black-owned hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, newspapers such as the Roanoke Tribune, anything you could think of.
“Henry Street was the business hub and the entertainment district of the African-American community,” he said. “And that is where Oscar Micheaux had his film studio from 1922 up until about 1925. And he filmed four films here in Roanoke. But he was an integral part in what was Henry Street.”
Micheaux was mainly self-taught in filmmaking because “not a lot of white filmmakers would work with Black filmmakers,” Bell said. “He started to create similar films to what they referred to as silent films. And then he started to get into regular films, of course, with sound. He was just one of those people that had a passion and a dream and wanted to work for himself. And doing film was one of those things and one of those ways he learned how to do it.”
Micheaux used his films, the first by a Black American to be shown in white movie theaters, to portray racial injustice suffered by Black Americans, delving into topics such as lynching, job discrimination, and mob violence.
Micheaux went on to produce 44 films between 1919 and 1948 (silent and sound), reaching audiences throughout the U.S., as well as internationally.
“I use my films to help elevate the race,” Oscar Micheaux once said. “I have always tried to lay before the colored race a cross section of its own life, to view the colored heart from close range.”
He wasn’t truly recognized during his lifetime, Bell said, but noted today, Roanoke has a historical marker specifically for him and his legacy in front of the old Strand Theater (where Micheaux had his office) on Henry Street.
“Then a local theater, the Grandin Theater, every single year in the month of February, shows Oscar Micheaux films,” Bell said. “And then the Harrison Museum of African-American Culture here in Roanoke a few weeks ago, actually honored his work and showed one of his films.
“Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking” will screen Sunday, March 22, 2 p.m. in the main theater of The Last Picture House, 325 E. 2nd Street in Davenport. The rare 1920 silent film “Within Our Gates” will screen at 4:15 p.m. in the small theater -- seating is first come, first served.
Truth First Film Alliance, Inc. is a non-profit organization that supports and encourages the production and exhibition of documentary films, and narrative films based on true stories, through public presentations and educational programs in the Quad Cities region. For more information, visit TruthFirstFilmAlliance.org.
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