Classic Film Tour Trailer: Oscar Micheaux & Black Independent Cinema
by Alex Billington
April 24, 2024
Source: YouTube
“He didn’t just make movies, he sparked a revolution.” Kino Lorber is launching a classic film tour soon to celebrate a pioneering American filmmaker named Oscar Micheaux. He is known as “the country’s first major Black filmmaker,” who made many films from the 1920s onward that redefined what cinema could be and who it was for. His very first film was The Homesteader in 1919, however it is now considered lost. Kino Lorber will be showing 17 films from Micheaux’s filmography, provided by the Library of Congress as 4K restorations & rare discoveries. Micheaux directed & produced more than 40 films from 1919-1948, shifting from silent to talkies, and depicting early such complex and taboo subjects as religious hypocrisy, interracial marriage, police violence, and lynching, often with all-Black casts and producers. This touring “festival” features 17 films that will play on the big screen at art house cinemas. Featuring Within Our Gates (1920), Micheaux’s earliest surviving feature, plus Body & Soul, The Girl From Chicago, Murder in Harlem, God’s Step Children, Ten Minutes to Live, and many others. Check out some vintage footage in the trailer below.
Official trailer for Kino Lorber’s Oscar Micheaux and the Birth of Black Independent Cinema tour:
“Micheaux [1884–1951] heralded a new idea: that Black movies could be for the mass Black audience… He also left behind his own sweeping legend.” –Donald Bogle
Presented by the Library of Congress in association with Kino Lorber – Oscar Micheaux and the Birth of Black Independent Cinema. The intro: “This essential collection features 17 films, including seven new restorations, by the prolific independent director whose pioneering explorations of contemporary Black life paved the way for generations. Operating on shoestring budgets, Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) directed and produced more than 40 films between 1919 and 1948, shifting from silent to talkies, and depicting such complex and taboo subjects as religious hypocrisy, interracial marriage, police violence, and lynching, often with all-Black casts and producers. His work explored the Black experience with nuance and depth, often challenging the negative stereotypes so commonly portrayed in films of the era. Micheaux’s films were the first made by a Black filmmaker to be shown in white cinemas, and they were often hugely successful, with Micheaux working directly with theater owners to finance, distribute, and market them.” More on him here.
Kino Lorber’s presentation of Oscar Micheaux’s films will be touring the US this year. Starting at NYC’s Film Forum with films playing from May 3rd through May 9th. With artist, archivist, and series consultant Ina Archer introducing the first show of Body and Soul. “Previously circulated theatrically only in poor-quality prints, these newly restored versions allow us to witness the great legacy of Micheaux with fresh eyes.” For more info on the retrospective tour or how to watch these films in a theater – visit Kino Lorber’s official site.
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