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FEBRUARY 18, 1999
4D
A SEPARATE CINEMA
Early black fiimmakers
Enter Oscar Micheaux:
Pioneer showman auteur
8y Donald Bogan
A Separate Cinema
No early independent Afri
can-American filmmaker was
more important than the inde
fatigable producer/director Os
car Micheaux. A charismatic
showman with a dash and flair.
he no doubt felt befitted a mo
tion-picture director, Micheaux
was dedicated to his own con
cept of black cinema (a heady
mix of subliminal social mes
sages and sheer pop entertain
ment), and perhaps also to the
creation of his own personal
legend.
Born in 1884, he had once
been a Pullman car porter, then
a farmer in South Dakota, and
by 1915, also a door-to-door
salesman of his first self-pub
lishednovel, The Homesteader.
Within a few years, he turned
to film, his fervid enthusiasm
for moviemaking eventually
carrying him to Chicago and
later New York. Through sheer
drive coupled with a shrewd
promotional sense, he was able
to write, direct and produce, by
African Americans in Augusta history
1854, Campbell’s
Infirmary started
1854 - Drs. Henry and
Robert Campbell openasur
gical infirmary for blacks. It
was known as the Jackson
Street Hospital or
Campbell’s Infirmary; this
facility operated until the
openingof Freedman’s Hos
pital after the Civil War.
1850
One of the most
prolific filmmakers
of his time was a
novelist and self
taught rancher,
Oscar Micheaux.
He was the first to
make feature
length films and the
first to explore ta
boo subjects, includ
ing interracial rela
tionships, racism,
and lynching.
some accounts, 30 to 40-some
films from 1918 to 1948.
Micheaux’ features were simi
lar to Hollywood’s but techni
cally inferior. Lighting and
editing were often poor, and
the acting could be dreadful --
ranging from actors winging it
to those grandstanding. Often
a scene was shot in a single
take. Since he was forced to
1855, Lucy Craft Laney born
1855 - Lucy Craft Laney born in
Macon, Ga. Thedaughterofaslave,
she was an influential African-
American educator and leader. At
the age of 14, she
attended one of the ,
first classes at At- . B 3
lanta University. "= s
From there she de- il Il
voted herself to
teachingin thepub
lic schools of Ma- “EEEEE—"
Milledgeville, )
AUGUSTA FOCUS
shoot scenes so rapidly,
he seldom had time (or
money) to do retakes.
Consequently, an actor
might flub a line, then
just pick up the pieces
ofhis sentence and keep
on going.
Oddly enough,
Micheaux’ limitations
—the uncontrolled per
formances and the
lived-in look of some
sets (sometimes he
filmed in actual loca
tions) -- endowed his
films with a strange re
alism. One halfexpects
to hear Micheaux call
“Cut” and to see the ac
tors walk away from the
camera or express their
excitementoverthefact
that they’re actually making a
movie.
Intertwined in his film is the
consciousness of race as a force
in black life. Sometimes
Micheaux took the typical Hol
lywood script and gaveitablack
slant. His Underworld (1937)
was a gangster film: the recent
grad of a good colored college in
the South goes North, wherehe
gets himself mixed up in
Chicago’s crime world. Daugh
ter of the Congo (1930) was an
African adventure story about
1858, C.T. Walker born \.
1858 - The Rev. Charles T. Walker
born a slave in Hephzibah. He went on
to become one of Augusta’s greatest
personalities. He was such aspell-bind- 4 e
ing orator, he earned the nickname '
“Black Spurgeon,” after a powerful
English minister (Charles Spurgeon) :
who preached to packed houses in the ,
Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. v
He founded Tabernacle Baptist Church. As chairman of
the Walker Baptist Association, he was instrumental in
establishing the Walker Baptist Institute in Waynesboro,
Ga. in 1888. In 1899, he went to New York City to pastor
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. While in New York City, he
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A still from one ¢ irst featu gth race films,
Realization of a Negro's Ambition.
a United States military officer
bent on rescuing a young Ne
gro girl captured by Arab slave
hunters in a savage land.
On occasion, Micheaux fo
cused exclusively on race as a
subject, asin Birthright (1924),
the story of a young black
Harvard graduate whoreturns
to his hometown in Tennessee
bend on founding a colored
school to“uplift therace.” Natu
rally, heencounters opposition,
some of which comes from his
fellow blacks, who agree with
’ = Pioneer black
LB filmmaker
- Oscar Micheaux
A 3 4 .
white Southerners that educa
tion ruins a Negro. In its own
corny and sly way, Birthright
made a definite plea for black
unity, while satirizing the old
style turncoats and toms.
Micheaux liked this material
so much that he remade the
film in 1939.
Dazzled by Hollywood’s star
system, Micheaux also saw the
significance of stars for histype
of cinema. The Brute (1920)
featured boxer Sam Langford
with actress Evelyn Preer. His
1 360‘
1859, Black Codes
implemented here
1859 - After John Brown’s
raid at Harper’s Ferry in Oc
tober, whites in Augusta be
camejittery andimplemented
the Black Codes. By then
there were over 6,000 slaves
in Augusta who regularly
came in contact with free
Blacks. Police in Augusta
complained that it was diffi
cult to distinguish between
free Blacks and slaves. As a
result, even morerestrictions
were placed on free Blacks.
The Augustacity councileven
contemplated running free
Blacks out of town or enslav
ing them. Blacks in Augusta
were pur
_‘ in
or