His tribute to pioneers of African American film
Oscar Micheaux
He inspired Spike Lee to make his first film. But when Oscar Micheaux died in 1951, the enterprising black filmmaker was virtually unknown.
“He died a pauper,” said Jan-Christopher Horak, director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, of Micheaux, who produced, wrote and directed an astonishing 40 films in a career spanning three decades.
Jan-Christopher Horak
Now Horak hopes to revive the filmmaker’s legacy and that of other black cinema artists who made history in the early 20
th century with “African American Film Pioneers,” a film series that runs Sept. 11- 27.
In addition to Micheaux’s 1920 “Within Our Gates,” the earliest surviving feature by an African American director, and his 1925 masterpiece “Body and Soul,” starring a young Paul Robeson as a corrupt preacher, the series will highlight the work of Spencer Williams.
Although the African American actor is best known for playing the role of Andy on the “Amos ’n Andy Show,” Williams had a flourishing career as a screenwriter and director in the 1940s. His most famous movie was the 1941 race film “The Blood of Jesus.”
Now 97, actor Herbert Jeffrey appeared in all-black Westerns as the "singing cowboy."
The series will also pay tribute to “singing cowboy” Herb Jeffries, who starred in a number of all-black Westerns. Now 97, the actor will make a special appearance on Sept. 27.
Micheaux was the most prolific of the independent black filmmakers. “He literally learned how to make films by doing it,” said Horak, who restored one of the director’s forgotten works and was instrumental in putting the film series together. “He really was a self-made man.”
And a character fit for a screenplay. Born in 1884, Micheaux was raised on a farm in southern Illinois. After a brief time in Chicago, he headed to South Dakota and became a homesteader, an experience he chronicled in a self-published novel “The Homesteader.”
In the 1920s, Hollywood had little interest in reflecting the reality of African American life. When D.W. Griffith’s racist “Birth of a Nation” became a sensation, a wave of black-owned film companies sprang up.
Determined to adapt “The Homesteader” to the screen, Micheaux approached the Lincoln Film Company, the leading producer of African American movies, with an offer. He’d sell them the novel, but only if they let him direct.
“They said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” recalled Horak. “’We’re not going to let you do this!’”
Undaunted, Micheaux raised the money for the 1919 film the same way he did for his novel. “He literally went door to door,” says Horak, peddling the movie to strangers.
A young Paul Robeson starred in Micheaux's controversial "Body and Soul."
Micheaux also financed his movies in other creative ways. “He’d go to a town and talk to black business leaders and say, ‘If you fund me, I will put your daughter in my films.’”
When it came time to show them, the film archivist added, “he’d drive around the U.S. and show them in either urban theaters in black neighborhoods or in the South at segregated screenings.”
Despite his body of work, Micheaux never did break into Hollywood. “Until the 30s, when white producers realized there was a market for race films, he had to find a market,” said Horak. “Even in the 50s, Hollywood did not put black characters on the screen because they were afraid they couldn’t sell the films in the South.”
With his focus on light-skinned women passing as white, and his portrayal of blacks as occasional villains, Micheaux didn’t always win over black audiences, either.
“ 'Body and Soul' was extremely controversial,” said Horak. “When he made that film, he was not too known. A lot of African Americans were already dubious of films anyway because they were only racist images. It stood on its head this idea of the virtuous preacher. He got a lot of grief for that.”
Many of these films by African American filmmakers didn’t survive. Others were discovered and restored after being lost for decades.
A still from Micheaux's "Within Our Gates," the earliest surviving feature by an African American director.
One was Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates,” a film that depicted a black man being lynched.
“A single 16-millimeter print was found in Spain under “La Negra,”” said Horak. “It was repatriated back to the U.S. and the Library of Congress restored it as best it could. All that ever survived was one print, which was run to death.”
With the film series, Horak hopes that the work of these cinema pioneers will live on.
“We hope to bring in the community here,” he said, “but we’re also interested in students coming to see the work, too. It’s an important forgotten part of film history.”
“African American Film Pioneers,” hosted by the Film & Television Archive, runs from Friday, Sept.11 to Sunday, Sept. 27 at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood Village. It's located at the Hammer Museum. Advance tickets are available for $10 at
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/. Tickets are also available at the box office one hour before showtime: $9, general admission; $8 students and seniors.
