Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era
Oscar Micheaux-the most prolific African-American filmmaker to date and a filmmaking giant of the silent period-has finally found his rightful place in film history. Both artist and showman, Micheaux stirred controversy in his time as he confronted issues such as lynching, miscegenation, peonage and white supremacy, passing, and corruption among black clergymen. He emphasized the importance of education and the rights of citizenship (the vote, equal protection under the law) for racial...
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Oscar Micheaux-the most prolific African-American filmmaker to date and a filmmaking giant of the silent period-has finally found his rightful place in film history. Both artist and showman, Micheaux stirred controversy in his time as he confronted issues such as lynching, miscegenation, peonage and white supremacy, passing, and corruption among black clergymen. He emphasized the importance of education and the rights of citizenship (the vote, equal protection under the law) for racial uplift, to advance race progress, to awaken black consciousness, and to correct negative behavior within black communities. These films spoke to black moviegoers in ways that were completely different from Hollywood pictures.In this important new collection, prominent scholars examine Micheaux's surviving silent films, his fellow producers of race films who alternately challenged or emulated his methods, and the cultural activities that surrounded and sustained these achievements. The essays shed new light on the feature filmmaking of Richard Maurice (Detroit), David Starkman and the Colored Players Film Corporation (Philadelphia), and Richard Norman (Florida), as well as the stardom of Evelyn Preer, Lucia Lynn Moses, Paul Robeson, Charles Gilpin, and Lawrence Chenault. Studies of the shorter films shot in 16mm by ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston and religious reformers James and Eloyce Gist (Washington, D.C.) fill out the complex picture of an era.Authors examine Micheaux's films (and novels) from a range of perspectives, including his radical aesthetic strategies, his uses of stereotypes, his powerful critiques of D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and Eugene O'Neill's race plays, his radical uses of other texts (notably the novels of Charles Chesnutt), and his work with such genres as the Western. The relationship between black film and both the stage (particularly the Lafayette Players) and the black press, issues of underdevelopment, and a genealogy of Micheaux scholarship, as well as extensive and more accurate filmographies, give a richly textured portrait of this era. The essays will fascinate the general public as well as scholars in the fields of film studies, cultural studies, and African American history. This thoroughly readable collection is a superb reference work lavishly illustrated with rare photographs.Contributors include Pearl Bowser, Jayna Brown, Corey Creekmur, Jane Gaines, Gloria J. Gibson, J. Ronald Green, Arthur Jafa, Phyllis Klotman, Charles Musser, Charlene Regester, Louise Spence, Clyde R. Taylor, Sr. Francesca Thompson, and Michele Wallace.Library JournalThis informative, interesting, and very important collection of essays is the catalog accompanying a seven-part program of American race films that will be distributed by the New York's Museum of Modern Art on 35-mm film. The films and essays have been collected and arranged by Bowser, the founder and director of African Diaspora Images, who has curated film programs at institutions such as the Whitney, the American Museum of the Moving Image, and the Brooklyn Museum; Jane Gaines (English, Duke); and Charles Musser (American and film studies, Yale). The 14 essays cover a range of topics, from overviews of black American performance and cinema, to detailed analyses of Micheaux films, to thoughtful discussions of the work and impact of other groups of African American performers and filmmakers. The essays are lively and readable, casting light on an underrepresented facet of American film history. While it is unlikely that many libraries will purchase the film series, this illustrated book will be a valuable addition to any collection, academic or public, that deals with silent film, film history, African American studies, or American cultural history. Andrea Slonosky, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
The Touring Package: Programs and CreditsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Oscar Micheaux and Race Movies of the Silent Period1Black Silence and the Politics of Representation32The Notion of Treatment: Black Aesthetics and Film, based on an interview with Peter Hessli and additional discussions with Pearl Bowser113From Shadows 'n Shufflin' to Spotlights and Cinema: The Lafayette Players, 1915-1932194The African-American Press and Race Movies, 1909-1929345Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates: The Possibilities for Alternative Visions536Within Our Gates: From Race Melodrama to Opportunity Narrative677Oscar Micheaux's The Symbol of the Unconquered: Text and Context678To Redream the Dreams of White Playwrights: Reappropriation and Resistance in Oscar Micheaux's Body and Soul979Black Patriarch on the Prairie: National Identity and Black Manhood in the Early Novels of Oscar Micheaux13210Telling White Lies: Oscar Micheaux and Charles W. Chesnutt14711Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: The Flying Ace, the Norman Company, and the Micheaux Connection16112Colored Players Film CorporationAn Alternative to Micheaux17812Lost, Then Found: The Wedding Scene from The Scar of Shame (1929)18813Richard D. Maurice and the Maurice Film Company19014Cinematic Foremothers: Zora Neale Hurston and Eloyce King Patrick Gist195App. AThe Reemergence of Oscar Micheaux: A Timeline and Bibliographic Essay211App. BAn Oscar Micheaux Filmography: From the Silents through His Transition to Sound, 1919-1931228App. CA Colored Players Film Corporation Filmography278App. DNorman Film Manufacturing Company: Production and Theatrical Release Dates for All-Black-Cast Films286Notes289Bibliography329About the Contributors341Credits345Index347
\ Library JournalThis informative, interesting, and very important collection of essays is the catalog accompanying a seven-part program of American race films that will be distributed by the New York's Museum of Modern Art on 35-mm film. The films and essays have been collected and arranged by Bowser, the founder and director of African Diaspora Images, who has curated film programs at institutions such as the Whitney, the American Museum of the Moving Image, and the Brooklyn Museum; Jane Gaines (English, Duke); and Charles Musser (American and film studies, Yale). The 14 essays cover a range of topics, from overviews of black American performance and cinema, to detailed analyses of Micheaux films, to thoughtful discussions of the work and impact of other groups of African American performers and filmmakers. The essays are lively and readable, casting light on an underrepresented facet of American film history. While it is unlikely that many libraries will purchase the film series, this illustrated book will be a valuable addition to any collection, academic or public, that deals with silent film, film history, African American studies, or American cultural history. Andrea Slonosky, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \
