The Birth Of African American Cinema - Oscar Micheaux

Hi all,

It's the Blogger here.  This blog will generally cover topics related to the art of film/movies.  I studied film so my movie-watching experience is a  little different to the "normal" movie viewer who generally absorbs  information subconsciously as the focus is to follow the story on screen and not the  production elements involved.  I recently saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and wasn't moved at all.  It simply left me thinking of the inception of the hype when the first trailer was shown a whole year before its release!!! In short,  purely entertainment for those who enjoy the Sci-Fi genre and/or are die-hard Star Wars fans. Needless to say, kudos to John Boyega for his performance...doing London -Town proud!  Any comments  or thoughts about Star Wars are most welcome.

Moving on..... I thought I would start by touching on some Film History and expand some knowledge where needed.  In History of Film, it is documented that Georges Melies was the first filmmaker, presenting his first screening in 1896. At the turn of the 20th century a growing interest in Europe and the USA developed this new medium. This included a man called Oscar Micheaux. He was the first black filmmaker during early cinema. I don't know about you, but  I had never heard of him and much to my horror,  wasn’t even aware that there were black filmmakers in the early cinema era. This has posed me to question: if there was one documented, then surely there are more that haven’t been documented to public history. Nonetheless, I have taken it upon myself to find out more  about this courageous, interesting man who accomplished great feats during a time when the hue of his skin didn’t work in his favour.

Coming from a farming background, Micheaux had a firm head for business. He had an ability to create money and established his own shoe shine stand at the age of 17. Prior to his film-making career, he was a successful author  and wrote multiple books. As a filmmaker, he made forty-four movies during the silent film era. His famous film, Within Our Gates, is a direct  and bold response to  D W Griffiths'  white supremacy flick, Birth of a Nation  (check out more info on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/)

I decided to trawl YouTube and fish out some of his work as a homage of his contribution to the craft of Film and much more.




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References:
Block Starz Music Television, (2014). [video] Available at: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oscarmicheaux [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
The Riverbends Channel, (2011). Within Our Gates 1920. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1E0NrcnwAE [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
The Riverbends Channel, (2011). Swing! 1939 [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrd2C3f6Y0 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
The Riverbends Channel, (2012). Lying Lips 1939. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82lT_aQyUP0 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
The Riverbends Channel, (2011). Murder In Harlem 1935. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM3gHmZu42Q [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
KMTREAL, (2014). The Life and Work of Oscar Micheaux. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-nNJfEDsXA [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].
Coleman, C. (2015). 28 Black People Who Should Inspire You — Oscar Micheaux. [image] Available at: http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/cac-28-black-people-who-should-inspire-you-oscar-micheaux/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2016].