9. Within Our Gates (1920)

Directed by Oscar Micheaux

Synopsis

The film relates the story of Sylvia, a black teacher from the South of the US who has come to Boston, but after being shunned by her fiancee (who witnesses her talking to a white man in her room) she returns to the South where she becomes a teacher in a school. The school has no money to keep working and therefore Sylvia returns to Boston in order to get some funds for the school. After being ran over by a philantropist -- if I had a quid for each time I get ran over by philantropists... -- she eventually gets the money and the problem is solved. The film doesn't end however, without explaining who the white man in Sylvia's room was. So we get a flashback to the history of her family. They were all lynched in good Southern fashion after her adoptive father being wrongly accused of murdering the landowner, and she survived because she was actually the daughter of the landowner's brother. The man in the room was therefore her father.

Review

This is a very interesting film, and one which was very hard for me to get. In fact I think it should be companion viewing to Birth of a Nation. Filmed only 5 years after it, Within Our Gates works like an answer to the racism in Griffith. Micheaux is not as accomplished a director as Griffith but not only is his message much more palatable and interesting, it also has more interesting characters and a better plot, as well as 2 hours less of film. On the downside however, it is extremely fragmented and a bit hard to follow which can probably be explained by the existence of only one copy of the film which hadn't been seen in 70 years.

The issues explored in Within Our Gates are as relevant today as they were 86 years ago, the problems with choosing faith over education, the fear of intellectualism, the attempt to keep people down by denying them education are all issues which are unfortunately still relevant today and have a particular relevance to the US, as do the more general issues of racism. The scene where the black reverend preaches that black people should not get an education because being informed is the way to hell, and afro-americans should remain pure and not meddle in the affairs of whites who will all go to hell, is an example of how religion was used to serve white interests, even through black reverends.

So, it is a truly fascinating film. Unfortunately it isn't easy to get and the version I obtained had no soundtrack at all, which isn't really that strange seeing as the film was only discovered in 1990 probably with no soundtrack sheets attached. Still, a truly important film, not just for the fact that it is one of the first films with black actors, by a black director, about black rights 40 something years before Luther King, but also because it is just a very good film irrespective of message.

Buy it at Amazon US. You might also want to get it at eBay, which is what I did.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wiki:

Responses

Within Our Gates was banned in Chicago when it was released, the authorities claiming that the vivid lynch and rape scenes would spark further rioting in the racially tense city. Nevertheless, when it was finally released, large audiences lined up to see it.

Today, the film is generally considered an important document of African American life in the years immediately following World War I, when racism was still rampant throughout the United States. Despite its occasional shortcomings (see below), it has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Aesthetics

'Within Our Gates can be criticized on aesthetic grounds. The story is convoluted, with many unresolved threads, and the acting is often weak. Critics have questioned Micheaux's skill as a film-maker, calling his plots "strange" and comparing him unfavorably with Ed Wood. The film's weaknesses may be excused by Michaeux's extremely limited budget and punishing schedule, and by the fragmentary nature of the only surviving print in which several scenes have been lost.


Representation of racism

The film attempts to portray the many different faces of contemporary African American society as perceived by the director. There are heroes and heroines, like Sylvia and the minister, but there are also criminals like Larry and lackeys like a minister that Mrs. Stafford supports, who tries to encourage the African American population to reject voting privileges. Mr. Gridlestone's servant Efram attempts ingratiate himself with the local white population by denouncing Mr. Landry as the murderer, even though he did not actually see the crime committed. Though he celebrates his relationship with the white community, he is eventually lynched, when the mob fails to find the Landrys.

As a novelist, Micheaux recognizes the complexity of African American life, particularly in the Deep South, but he is reluctant to place the onus of blame for the impoverished condition of Blacks solely on the white population, and points to other Blacks who help to perpetuate their condition for reasons of personal gain.

Some critics have challenged what they considered to be the inherent racism that Micheaux displays in the film. In addition to his scathing critique of Black society, Micheaux seemed to prefer lighter-skinned Blacks as his heroes and heroines, and may have modelled Sylvia after characters played by Lillian Gish. In fact, Evelyn Preer, who played Sylvia, was instructed to wear chalk on her face to make herself appear lighter-skinned, and she and the other positive characters appear to be attempting to "pass" as white.