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Within Our Gates is a 1920 American silent film by the director Oscar Micheaux that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of blacks to cities of the North and Midwest, and the emergence of the "New Negro". It was part of a genre called race films.
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled by black filmmakers, Micheaux is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker, a prominent producer of race films, and has been described as "the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century". He produced both silent films and sound films.
Evelyn Preer, was a pioneering American stage and screen actress and jazz and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen."
The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produced. Of these, fewer than one hundred remain. Because race films were produced outside the Hollywood studio system, they were largely forgotten by mainstream film historians until they resurfaced in the 1980s on the BET cable network. In their day, race films were very popular among African-American theatergoers. Their influence continues to be felt in cinema and television marketed to African Americans.
The Homesteader (1919) is a lost black-and-white silent film by African-American author and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The film is based on his novel inspired by his experiences.
Lawrence Chenault was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor. He appeared in approximately 24 films between years 1920 and 1934; most of his performances were in films directed by pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. His brother, Jack Chenault, was also a film actor.
The Gunsaulus Mystery is a 1921 American silent race film directed, produced, and written by Oscar Micheaux. The film was inspired by events and figures in the 1913-1915 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. The film is now believed to be lost. Micheaux remade the film 1935 as Murder in Harlem.
A Daughter of the Congo is a 1930 race film directed, written and produced by Oscar Micheaux. The film is loosely based on the novel The American Cavalryman (1917), by African-American novelist and playwright Henry Francis Downing. It is considered a lost film.
The Conjure Woman is a 1926 silent film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. A race film featuring an African-American cast and catering to an African-American audience, it stars Evelyn Preer and Lawrence Chenault, with support from character actors Peter Verwayen, Alma Sewell and Sidney Easton. It is based on American writer Charles W. Chesnutt's 1899 short story collection of the same name. No print of the film has been located and it is presumed to be a lost film.
The House Behind the Cedars is a 1927 silent race film directed, written, produced and distributed by the noted director Oscar Micheaux. It was loosely adapted from the 1900 novel of the same name by African-American writer Charles W. Chesnutt, who explored issues of race, class and identity in the post-Civil War South. No print of the film is known to exist, and it is considered lost. Micheaux remade the film in 1932 under the title Veiled Aristocrats.
The Brute is a 1920 silent race film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. No print of the film is known to exist and the production is believed to be a lost film. The original version of the film included a scene where the boxer defeats a white rival, but Micheaux was forced to remove the scene by censors.
A Son of Satan is a 1924 silent race film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. The film follows the misadventures of a man who accepted a bet to spend a night in a haunted house. Micheaux shot the film in The Bronx, New York, and Roanoke, Virginia.
The Devil's Disciple (1926) is an American melodramatic silent film with a primarily African-American cast, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux, on the subject of white slavery in New York City.
Deceit is a 1923 American silent black-and-white film. It is a conventional melodrama directed by Oscar Micheaux. Like many of Micheaux's films, Deceit casts clerics in a negative light. Although the film was shot in 1921, it was not released until 1923. It is not known whether the film currently survives, which suggests that it is a lost film.
Salem Tutt Whitney and J. Homer Tutt, known collectively as the Tutt Brothers, were American vaudeville producers, writers, and performers of the late 19th and early 20th century. They were also known as Whitney & Tutt, Tutt & Whitney and the Whitney Brothers. They were prominent in black vaudeville and created over forty revues for black audiences.
Robert Levy (1888–1959) was an English-born theatre manager and film producer whose support for African-American actors helped pave the way for the recognition of race films.
Birthright is a 1938 American drama film directed, co-produced and co-written by Oscar Micheaux. Carman Newsome stars as a black Harvard graduate facing racism and discrimination after he returns to his small hometown in Tennessee, where he hoped to develop a school similar to Tuskegee Institute or Hampton Institute, both historically black colleges.
The Spider's Web is a 1926 Oscar Micheaux film starring Evelyn Preer. It was remade in 1932 as The Girl from Chicago.
The Broken Violin is an American silent film directed by Oscar Micheaux, released in 1928.
Ten Nights in a Barroom is an American film released in 1926. The film had a temperance theme and an African American cast. It followed on Timothy Shay Arthur's 1854 novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There and William W. Pratt's play, as well as earlier film adaptations albeit with white casts. A man's drinking causes him to lose money, his business, and his daughter. The film has been restored and is archived at the Library of Congress. Charles Gilpin stars. The film was released during the Prohibition era. Roy Calnek directed.
References
- ↑ Couvares, Francis G., ed. (1996). Movie Censorship and American Culture. University of Massachusetts Press.
p 173: "... from members of his own community who resented such depictions. It seems logical that Micheaux would anticipate criticism from both blacks and whites again in response to his 1924 film Birthright, which portrayed an African American ...
