After singing the praises of The Birth Of A Nation director D.W.Griffith last week, I feel as if it's my karmic duty to talk about the first African-American feature film director, Oscar Micheaux.
At the time of The Birth Of A Nation's release, Micheaux was working as a novelist from his farm in South Dakota. Interested in breaking into film, he approached the newly formed Lincoln Motion Picture Company, the first producers of what would become known as "race movies"; films with an entirely black cast (white characters were played by black actors in "whiteface"), made for black audiences, and often shown in segregated theaters. Oscar offered them the rights to adapt his first novel, The Homesteader, on the condition that they let him direct it. Lincoln declined. So Oscar went about raising money to produce his film the same way he made money for his books; by going door-to-door.
He finally got the film produced, and The Homesteader was released in 1919. Emboldened by his first successful film endeavour, he followed it up with a direct affront to The Birth Of A Nation, entitled Within Our Gates (1920). The film parodies several elements of D.W.Griffith's classic, most notably the attempted rape scene. This time, the races are reversed, and there's an additional twist; it's a white man trying to rape a woman of mixed race, who is (unbeknownst to him) his own illegitimate daughter! As you can imagine, Micheaux often came into conflict with censorship at the time, and several of his films have become either truncated or lost entirely.
This sounds like a great loss to cinema, and from a historical perspective, it is. However, if you actually watch any of his films, welllll. . . they're not exactly fantastic. Even factoring in the budgetary and time restraints given to him, there seems to be a lack of understanding as to how to utilize the medium of film. Editing flaws, continuity errors, static staging, and a lack of strong direction for the actors are common enough problems in his movies.
He was a passionate trailblazer, and a true auteur in an era when "black films" were often being made by white producers and writers. His prolific output over his 30 year career included about 40 films, both silents and talkies, and in the 40's he resumed his career as a novelist. Despite his limitations as an artist, his true legacy is as an inspiration to several generations since.
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