Within Our Gates

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Movie
German title Within Our Gates
Original title Within Our Gates
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1920
length 79 minutes
Rod
Director Oscar Micheaux
script Oscar Micheaux
production Oscar Micheaux
occupation

Within Our Gates is an American silent film drama directed by Oscar Micheaux from 1920. It was created as a direct reaction to David Wark Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and is considered the oldest surviving film by an African American director.

action

The young African American teacher Sylvia Landry, who comes from the south , travels to Chicago to raise money for a school. There she meets Dr. Vivian who falls in love with her. When Sylvia receives a donation of $ 50,000 from the wealthy philanthropist Mrs. Warwick, she returns to the south.

Dr. Vivian follows her and seeks out her cousin Alma, who tells him about Sylvia's past: Her adoptive father was wrongly accused of the murder of the wealthy landowner Philip Gridlestone and lynched together with his wife and son . Sylvia managed to escape, but she was caught up with Gridlestone's brother Armand and raped. From a scar on her chest Armand recognized that he was Sylvia's father.

background

In 1915, David Wark Griffith published his historical epic The Birth of a Nation , in which the Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as the savior of the South. Four years later, there were serious riots by whites against blacks in Chicago. 38 African Americans were murdered and thousands were left homeless. Both events inspired Oscar Micheaux to make a film that deals with the situation of blacks in the United States. Within Our Gates was the director's second film and was made on a budget of around $ 15,000.

After its completion in December 1919, the work was initially rejected by the Chicago censors because it was feared that it could cause further unrest. Other cities such as Omaha and New Orleans followed suit. Micheaux then presumably defused some of the controversial scenes. On January 12, 1920, Within Our Gates was released in cinemas nationwide. About six months later the film was cut again.

Within Our Gates was thought to be lost for a long time . It wasn't until the early 1990s that an almost complete copy of the film, entitled La Negra, was found in Madrid . In 1993 the Library of Congress commissioned a restoration. The Spanish subtitles were translated into English by Gene DeAnna.

Today the work is considered an important document of racial discrimination after the First World War . Within Our Gates is probably the oldest surviving film by an African-American director. In 1992 he was inducted into the National Film Registry .

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See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Green, Ronald J. Straight Lick. 2000, page 24