Black filmmakers: Oscar Micheaux

BLACK FILMMAKERS: OSCAR MICHEAUX

BY ANTHONY LEWIS

Storytellers help bring stories into the light and spread awareness about certain topics. Throughout my time studying film at LBSU, I’ve noticed we always talk about the same common directors: George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg and Quentin Tarintino. It’s never anything new. As a Black student studying film, I don’t hear much about Black directors, editors, or even screenwriters. It’s not as if we don’t have a lot of successful Black filmmakers. Before we had Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Jordan Peele and Issa Rae, we had Oscar Micheaux.

Oscar Micheaux was born in Metropolis, Illinois Jan. 2nd, 1884 to a family of farmers. In his early years, he worked as a car manufacturer but felt that didn’t satisfy his needs as an artist. He decided to move to South Dakota to focus on his writing. Soon after, in 1912, he published his first book “The Conquest”, a story that follows the ambitions and struggles of a Black homesteader. Later in 1919, Oscar Micheaux made his first film titled “Homesteader” based on his first book.

In 1920, Oscar Micheaux made his second film titled “Within Our Gates” which is a silent film that follows Sylvia Landry, a young lady who is on a fundraising trip to help keep a school up for Black children. Later, she meets a man named Dr. Vivian who finds out about her past, in which racism changed her life forever. The film was made to challenge and debunk the racist stereotypes in D.W. Griffith’s film, “The Birth Of A Nation.” I trust we all know how problematic that film was.

During his life, Oscar went on to produce and direct 44 films. In a time when Black people were still considered inferior to white people, he turned the impossible into possible and gave a lot of opportunities to Black people who aspired to be bigger. On Mar. 25th, 1951, Oscar Micheaux died due to congestive heart failure; however, he did not die in vain. Oscar’s legacy continued on for other Black filmmakers: Spike Lee stated that Oscar was the inspiration to create his first film and The Library of Congress chose Micheaux’s film “Body and Soul” for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019 due to its significance.

I share Oscar’s story with you because I think that it’s important to learn about Black filmmakers; they are just as important as white filmmakers, and they deserve a lot more credibility than what they get.