Black History Month Thread #6: "Did You Know?" (Movies)

[Hissyspit]

Every day for the rest of February, I am posting some form of interesting information regarding African American history.

Oscar Micheaux

Director "Oscar Micheaux, one of the first black filmmakers to deal with racial prejudice in full-length films,' was the first African American to produce a feature film (in 1919) and the first to produce a sound feature film (in 1931). He was definitely the "most prolific black independent filmmaker of the twentieth century," starting his own film company in Chicago in 1918. Possibly the most significant work by Micheaux (pronounced 'Me-Shaw') is Within Our Gates, a 1920 film that responded directly to the success of D.W. Griffith's racist film, Birth of a Nation, the first film screened in the White House (Woodrow Wilson).

"Within Our Gates was intended for negro audiences, but because of some controversial parts (rape and lynching) many exhibitors refused to show it, so very few saw it when it was released." This being the earliest surviving film made by an African American (the only print of which was discovered by historian Thomas Cripps), it was placed on the National Film Registry by Congress recently. In Micheaux's film "one bigoted southern woman living in the north, against the women's suffrage movement for fear that negro women will get the right to vote, expresses her negative sentiment about educating African Americans: 'Thinking will give them a headache.'"

A better critical overview of African American film than I could post here can be found at: http://www.africanamericans.com/Films.htm

And a great list of movies, documentaries and DVDs by African American directors, concerning the lives of African Americans, or dealing with race themes (such as "passing" films) can be found here: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/imagesafam.html

Film poster for Oscar Micheaux's Murder In Harlem, 1935; Black Film Center/Archive,
Indiana University



Film still from The Girl In Room 20 dir. Spencer Williams (seen on the right), 1946


Original film poster Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song dir. Melvin Van Pebble, 1971; Cinemation (note X rating in corner of poster)

SOURCES:
Donald Bogle. Black In American Films And Television. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.
www.imdb.com
http://www.africanamericans.com/Films.htm
http://shorock.com/arts/micheaux/papers/neuforth.html
http://www.williamgreaves.com/catalog.htm#Biographies
Jeffrey C. Stewart. 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History. New York: Doubleday, 1996; reprint, New York: Gramercy, Random House, 2006.

Yesterday's Black History Month Thread #5: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x476679

[Charlie Brown]

1. Thanks for posting this

I love film history, and am now greatly interested in Micheaux.

[Hissyspit]

3. Be sure and click that first link in the post, it has lots of great stuff

you can follow up on. It mentions Eloyse Gist, an evangelist who made films apparently, I don't know if she is considered the first female African American filmmaker, I couldn't really figure out who is given that designation.

[Ecumenist]

2. I've seen a few of Oscar Micheaux's films.

He was a godsend to many black people,(I'm black too). The only thing about his fims is that he was a bit colour struck. All of the leading ladies are VERY fair, almost caucasian appearing and many of the more sinister characters are dark skinned. Beyond that, he definitely served a valuable purpose and has contributed much to history.

[Hissyspit]

5. I found a great article on "passing" films...

Films with the theme of pretending to be someone you are not. These can be anything from "Imitation of Life" and its concern with a fair-skinned young black woman passing as white, to "Gattaca" and "Blade Runner" (passing as human) and "Some Like It Hot" (man passing as a woman), and all the resultant concerns of how one fits into society/societies/culture/subcultures.

I was going to include some of that in the post, but I misplaced the link and couldn't find it again!

[Ecumenist]

7. On the subject of passing...

I know that in my family, in the 20's and 30's, there are more hta a few members who passed in order to find their way into a job, a neighbourhood, etc. Passing is a touchy subject and I understand, if not approve, why it was done, especially in the past but sadly, I know people who actually pass today. It's such a sad state to see in this day and age.

[tishaLA]

4. I recently saw Micheaux's

The Symbol of the Unconquered, which is missing a large portion but it still a monument to early African American film-making. It's quite something, despite its somewhat strange Max Roach score. It's about a woman who goes out west and her effort to hold on to her land....lots of "tragic mulatta" tropes and sentimentality. It is also an anti-Birth of a Nation film. The Symbol of the Unconquered is a tale of duplicity and deception involving a black man passing for white who hates his own race, an ambitious black hero, the KKK, and a black woman mounting a horse to sound the alarm. The Klan tries to run the hero off his land when they learn it has valuable oil deposits.

I saw it on TCM; if it re-airs--it's not available for rent--make sure to see it. You won't regret it.

[Hissyspit]

6. That would be a "passing" movie, as well. I almost posted about that, too.

If I had come across it on TCM, I definitely would have watched it. It must have been part of their Silent Sunday presentation.

[Hissyspit]

8. self-kick for fun

[Skittles]

9. no, I did not know

very interesting :thumbsup:

[Hissyspit]

10. The things you can learn at 3 a.m.! Another thing I did not know..

and learned doing this post is that that first film Micheaux did, The Homesteader, was inspired by his own experience as the first African American homesteader of South Dakota.

[Skittles]

11. I would love to see some of these films

I'm a film buff

[Hissyspit]

12. Within These Gates came out on VHS a few years ago, but I think it may

be out of print already. You can try here: www.moviesunlimited.com or look on ebay. I doubt very much it is on DVD in its entirety.

[Skittles]

14. thank you for the tip!

I will check it out!

[Hissyspit]

13. early morning kick - some culture with your coffee n/t

[Hissyspit]

15. kick

[EFerrari]

16. K&R

:kick:

[EFerrari]

17. Hissyspit, have you seen "Cabin in the Sky"?

It's amazing. Directed by Vicent Minnelli (1943) it showcases EVERYONE.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035703/

[Hissyspit]

20. Yes. Some other works of note: Dutchman, Superfly

Dutchman (1963)
Made into a film in 1967, "LeRoi Jone's landmark play tells the story of a white woman who makes advances toward a black man on a subway and then insults him when he begins to respond. Overcome with anger, Clay, the previously soft-spoken African American, ridicules Lula and all white people for their racism." With it's shock-inducing ending, "the play ended the period of oblique criticism in African American literature and ushered in the more direct social criticism..."

Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (1971)
"Melvin Van Peebles produced this classic African American escape saga using credit cards... Peebles...starred in the movie (as) an escaped prisoner whose name drives from his expertise as a sexual partner," who "eventually runs on foot to Mexico." His story expressed a militant black critique of American race relations," and the film's success "alerted Hollywood that movies marketed to a predominantly African American audience would make money," and it "ushered in the wave of less critical blaxploitation films of the 1970s."

Superfly (1972)
"This engaging film by Gordon Parks Jr. (son of Shaft director Gordon Parks Sr.) takes up where Shaft left off, but this time from the other side of the legal fence, by glorifying the lifestyle of Superfly, who is a cocaine dealer, flashy dresser, and lover man who develops an 'inappropriate' passion - for freedom from working for the Man and the whole system of living in the Underworld...' What makes this move more than the usual formulaic blaxploitation film is the way in which it subtly convinces us that Priest is not typical, that he is, in fact, a highly socailly competent, intelligent man who has mastered his environment; and the final act of mastery will be to leave it." And it has one of the best movie scores ever by Curtis Mayfield.

Several sources said that A Dry White Season from 1989, directed by Euzyn Palcy, was the first motion picture directed by an African American woman for a major American studio, but I wonder about that. Didn't have time to research it more.

[LisaLynne]

18. Thank you!

Except now my Netflix queue is way past the point of being managable. :(

Seriously, though, thanks. :)

[1932]

19. A great movie about race from the '50s: No Way Out

No Way Out (1950)

Directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

[malaise]

21. Great post -thanks n/t

[EFerrari]

22. a kick and a thank you

[Catherine Vincent]

23. Thanks again!

:hi:

[Hissyspit]

24. Here's today's post #7:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=496690&mesg_id=496690

[EFerrari]

25. kick

[Wilms]

26. K&R n/t