By Shawn Nowlin
Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay and Gina Prince-Bythewood are currently all household names as Black film directors.
Long before the three were winning awards and breaking records worldwide at the box office, there was a trailblazer who laid a foundation for the trio to become the success stories that they are today.
Born in 1884, Oscar Micheaux was a revolutionary film director and independent producer who produced more than 45 silent and sound films.
To say that America was racially divided when Micheaux was proving that Black filmmakers could own their stories would be a massive understatement. Not only did Micheaux make successful films on topics like lynching, but he also spearheaded a distribution system for other Black creators who were shut out of Hollywood.
To bypass the gatekeepers, he self-financed all his films across the country by road shows. Micheaux was always very intentional about how he depicted African Americans.
In 1948, regarding the purpose of his films, Micheaux said, “One of the greatest tasks of my life has been to teach the colored man he can be anything. It is only by presenting those portions of the race in my pictures, in the light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights.”
Expounding further he added, “Moving pictures have become one of the greatest revitalizing forces in race adjustment. My results…might have been narrow at times, due perhaps to certain limited situations, which I endeavored to portray, but in those limited situations, the truth was the predominate characteristic.”
At 65, Micheaux died in Charlotte, NC of heart failure. The impact of his work is still felt to this day. Fifteen years ago, the Taubman Museum of Art created a category for donors in honor of the trailblazer, the Micheaux Society.
Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking is a documentary directed by Francesco Zippel that thoroughly explores his life and legacy.
As part of its annual Black History Month celebration, the Grandin Theatre will be hosting free showings for three different films in the coming weeks at 7 p.m. – Body and Soul (Feb. 3), God’s Step Children (Feb. 10) and Swing! (Feb. 24).
Now in his second year on the Board of Directors for The Grandin Theatre, Raekwon Moore encourages as many as possible to attend the screenings.
“Please join us in our partnership with the Harrison Museum of African American Culture as we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Black History Month by highlighting the work of the first major African American feature length film maker Oscar Micheaux,” he recently wrote on his Facebook page.
Each of the showings is sponsored by the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, Roanoke Public Libraries, HC Smith Limited, Roanoke Public Library Foundation, the Roanoke Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Grandin Theatre Foundation.
