1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:15,515 --> 00:00:20,920 {\an8}♪♪ 4 00:00:22,822 --> 00:00:30,630 {\an8}♪♪ 5 00:00:30,730 --> 00:00:38,571 {\an8}♪♪ 6 00:00:38,638 --> 00:00:41,107 {\an8}[ Speaking Italian ] 7 00:00:52,252 --> 00:00:59,893 {\an8}♪♪ 8 00:01:12,472 --> 00:01:15,041 [ Reel whirring ] 9 00:01:23,983 --> 00:01:30,290 {\an8}♪♪ 10 00:01:30,356 --> 00:01:36,629 {\an8}♪♪ 11 00:01:36,729 --> 00:01:38,364 Chuck D: Looked at Oscar Micheaux 12 00:01:38,431 --> 00:01:40,834 as the originator of DIY -- 13 00:01:40,934 --> 00:01:43,603 do-it-yourself, independent. 14 00:01:43,670 --> 00:01:49,876 {\an8}♪♪ 15 00:01:49,943 --> 00:01:53,046 Asante: He means groundbreaking. 16 00:01:53,113 --> 00:01:56,983 He means freedom and possibilities -- 17 00:01:57,083 --> 00:01:59,652 the possibility for me to exist. 18 00:02:01,788 --> 00:02:05,425 Kwei-Armah: Oscar Micheaux means you can do it. 19 00:02:05,525 --> 00:02:09,562 No matter what your environment, no matter what your time, 20 00:02:09,629 --> 00:02:12,332 you can simply do it. 21 00:02:12,398 --> 00:02:18,238 {\an8}♪♪ 22 00:02:18,304 --> 00:02:20,773 Stewart: Oscar Micheaux is the most important 23 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:22,742 black filmmaker who ever lived. 24 00:02:22,842 --> 00:02:24,410 Period. 25 00:02:24,477 --> 00:02:27,347 {\an8}♪♪ 26 00:02:32,519 --> 00:02:36,823 [ Charles Mingus' "Freedom" plays ] 27 00:02:39,759 --> 00:02:41,394 {\an8}♪♪ 28 00:02:41,494 --> 00:02:45,165 We do have an entry in black history... 29 00:02:45,231 --> 00:02:48,168 {\an8}♪♪ 30 00:02:48,234 --> 00:02:52,372 ...who made what personally amounts to his shovel. 31 00:02:52,438 --> 00:02:56,242 He was Spike Lee before there was Spike Lee. 32 00:02:56,309 --> 00:02:58,478 {\an8}♪♪ 33 00:02:58,545 --> 00:03:02,649 And this is the 70th anniversary of his passing. 34 00:03:02,715 --> 00:03:04,784 {\an8}♪♪ 35 00:03:04,884 --> 00:03:06,719 Mingus: This mule ain't from Moscow. 36 00:03:06,786 --> 00:03:09,088 This mule ain't from the South. 37 00:03:09,155 --> 00:03:11,624 But this mule's had some learning. 38 00:03:11,724 --> 00:03:13,026 Mostly mouth-to-mouth. 39 00:03:13,126 --> 00:03:15,228 It was very tough for most black families 40 00:03:15,328 --> 00:03:18,064 and black people at that time, knew what they had to do. 41 00:03:18,164 --> 00:03:21,201 We had come through the worst of being slaves. 42 00:03:21,267 --> 00:03:23,670 Then there was a civil war. 43 00:03:23,770 --> 00:03:25,905 Mingus: So stand fast, young Romeo. 44 00:03:26,005 --> 00:03:27,574 Soothe in contemplation 45 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:30,810 thy burning whole and aching thigh. 46 00:03:30,877 --> 00:03:33,613 Your stubbornness is ever-living 47 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,383 and cruel anxiety is about to die. 48 00:03:37,483 --> 00:03:39,385 So after the aftermath, it was like, 49 00:03:39,485 --> 00:03:42,388 okay, either we're going to have to learn this well, 50 00:03:42,488 --> 00:03:44,891 do for self, a do or die. 51 00:03:44,958 --> 00:03:51,264 ♪ Freedom for your daddy's daddy ♪ 52 00:03:51,364 --> 00:03:57,370 ♪ Freedom for your mama's mama ♪ 53 00:03:57,437 --> 00:04:02,609 ♪ Freedom for your brothers and sisters ♪ 54 00:04:02,675 --> 00:04:09,349 ♪ But no freedom for me ♪ 55 00:04:09,449 --> 00:04:11,584 Freeman: It was difficult for everybody, 56 00:04:11,684 --> 00:04:15,722 but he was determined and quite successful. 57 00:04:15,788 --> 00:04:18,891 {\an8}♪♪ 58 00:04:18,958 --> 00:04:22,395 You can make it if you try. 59 00:04:22,495 --> 00:04:24,564 If you think Oscar Micheaux, 60 00:04:24,631 --> 00:04:27,600 you think, put your head down 61 00:04:27,667 --> 00:04:30,570 and go forward, and you'll get it done. 62 00:04:33,072 --> 00:04:35,408 I wonder how many know him? 63 00:04:35,475 --> 00:04:37,310 [ Birds chirping ] 64 00:04:41,481 --> 00:04:44,384 I discovered Oscar Micheaux by by accident. 65 00:04:44,484 --> 00:04:47,086 I was at the Carbondale, Illinois, library 66 00:04:47,153 --> 00:04:48,788 looking at the nonfiction section, 67 00:04:48,888 --> 00:04:51,024 and there's this picture of him on the cover 68 00:04:51,124 --> 00:04:52,525 that looks compelling. 69 00:04:52,592 --> 00:04:54,360 I start reading that book and I can't put it down, 70 00:04:54,427 --> 00:04:56,362 and I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this man's story. 71 00:04:56,429 --> 00:04:57,630 It's the greatest American story 72 00:04:57,730 --> 00:04:59,799 that nobody knows anything about. 73 00:04:59,866 --> 00:05:08,007 {\an8}♪♪ 74 00:05:08,074 --> 00:05:10,276 McGilligan: Well, his family came from Kentucky. 75 00:05:10,343 --> 00:05:12,011 They were slaves. 76 00:05:15,248 --> 00:05:20,086 They crossed into southern Illinois when slaves were freed, 77 00:05:20,153 --> 00:05:25,291 and they started to tend farms outside a small town 78 00:05:25,358 --> 00:05:27,393 called Metropolis. 79 00:05:27,493 --> 00:05:36,202 {\an8}♪♪ 80 00:05:36,269 --> 00:05:44,944 {\an8}♪♪ 81 00:05:45,044 --> 00:05:48,414 Micheaux, because he was raised in a farm family, 82 00:05:48,481 --> 00:05:51,384 really had this rugged individualism 83 00:05:51,484 --> 00:05:53,686 and this hard work ethic. 84 00:05:56,322 --> 00:05:58,791 He's five of 11 children. 85 00:05:58,891 --> 00:06:03,596 {\an8}♪♪ 86 00:06:03,696 --> 00:06:06,332 Kwei-Armah: His relationship with his mother was profound, 87 00:06:06,399 --> 00:06:09,602 and it was profound because she probably had the ambition 88 00:06:09,669 --> 00:06:11,871 of all of those who were enslaved, 89 00:06:11,971 --> 00:06:16,476 which is one day, not only will we be free, 90 00:06:16,576 --> 00:06:21,414 but we will be equal and have equity in this land. 91 00:06:21,481 --> 00:06:28,187 {\an8}♪♪ 92 00:06:28,287 --> 00:06:32,492 His mother was a great admirer of Booker T. Washington. 93 00:06:32,558 --> 00:06:36,129 Booker T. Washington's great philosophy 94 00:06:36,195 --> 00:06:41,534 was that education would lift black people up in America. 95 00:06:43,202 --> 00:06:46,406 At Micheaux's time, there's all these legal barriers 96 00:06:46,472 --> 00:06:49,008 to stop black folks from moving forward. 97 00:06:51,611 --> 00:06:55,815 And education was really the only thing you could use 98 00:06:55,882 --> 00:06:57,884 to break through some of these barriers, 99 00:06:57,950 --> 00:07:00,720 and Micheaux used it to his full advantage. 100 00:07:00,787 --> 00:07:04,090 He believed in kind of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. 101 00:07:04,157 --> 00:07:08,094 He believed in the whole notion of learning a skill 102 00:07:08,161 --> 00:07:10,430 and combining that with kind of education 103 00:07:10,530 --> 00:07:14,767 and really moving forward with that. 104 00:07:14,834 --> 00:07:18,905 His trajectory from being a young man, or a teenager even, 105 00:07:19,005 --> 00:07:22,575 was to get out of Metropolis, head north, 106 00:07:22,642 --> 00:07:26,412 where there was opportunity, better money, 107 00:07:26,479 --> 00:07:29,649 and thousands of black people 108 00:07:29,715 --> 00:07:32,652 living in the black belt of Chicago. 109 00:07:32,718 --> 00:07:34,687 [ Birds chirping ] 110 00:07:38,157 --> 00:07:43,596 {\an8}♪♪ 111 00:07:43,696 --> 00:07:45,531 He wasn't a slave anymore, 112 00:07:45,598 --> 00:07:47,600 so the fact that a lot of black folks 113 00:07:47,667 --> 00:07:52,038 there were able to be nomadic and travel 114 00:07:52,104 --> 00:07:54,507 and be able to get great experiences 115 00:07:54,607 --> 00:07:57,009 away from being in one place. 116 00:07:57,076 --> 00:08:02,215 That's what also galvanized a lot of this energy and talent. 117 00:08:02,281 --> 00:08:06,686 {\an8}♪♪ 118 00:08:06,752 --> 00:08:09,989 Willmott: Well, Chicago is kind of exploding at that time. 119 00:08:10,089 --> 00:08:12,425 You know, it is part of the Great Migration, 120 00:08:12,525 --> 00:08:15,394 a lot of black folks leaving the South 121 00:08:15,495 --> 00:08:17,597 to find the American dream, really. 122 00:08:17,663 --> 00:08:22,768 {\an8}♪♪ 123 00:08:22,835 --> 00:08:25,071 Stewart: It was a really powerful community 124 00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:27,907 in the sense that there formed the basis 125 00:08:28,007 --> 00:08:30,643 for a kind of political mobilization 126 00:08:30,710 --> 00:08:33,913 and the creation of vibrant black culture 127 00:08:34,013 --> 00:08:36,682 and black artistic communities. 128 00:08:36,749 --> 00:08:39,252 And so this was a really important space 129 00:08:39,318 --> 00:08:41,554 in which Micheaux could start to imagine 130 00:08:41,654 --> 00:08:44,290 where he can make a name for himself. 131 00:08:44,357 --> 00:08:47,226 {\an8}♪♪ 132 00:08:48,961 --> 00:08:51,130 Peña: I think he was someone who looked forward. 133 00:08:51,197 --> 00:08:55,001 And, you know, in many ways, the key experience for Micheaux, 134 00:08:55,067 --> 00:08:58,304 I believe, was when he worked as a Pullman porter 135 00:08:58,404 --> 00:09:00,806 on the American railroads. 136 00:09:00,873 --> 00:09:03,609 [ Train whistle blows ] 137 00:09:03,676 --> 00:09:06,145 [ Up-tempo jazz music plays ] 138 00:09:06,245 --> 00:09:14,954 {\an8}♪♪ 139 00:09:15,054 --> 00:09:23,796 {\an8}♪♪ 140 00:09:23,863 --> 00:09:32,605 {\an8}♪♪ 141 00:09:32,672 --> 00:09:35,374 Even though they were waiters 142 00:09:35,441 --> 00:09:39,445 and sort of cabin people, people who made up rooms, 143 00:09:39,512 --> 00:09:41,614 they did, in a sense, mingle 144 00:09:41,681 --> 00:09:43,616 with very high-class white people 145 00:09:43,683 --> 00:09:45,918 and talk to them and get to know them, 146 00:09:45,985 --> 00:09:48,387 and I think Micheaux, in that experience, said, 147 00:09:48,487 --> 00:09:50,590 "If these people can live like this, 148 00:09:50,690 --> 00:09:53,092 I can live like this and African-Americans 149 00:09:53,159 --> 00:09:54,961 can live like this." 150 00:09:55,027 --> 00:10:01,167 {\an8}♪♪ 151 00:10:01,233 --> 00:10:07,406 {\an8}♪♪ 152 00:10:07,473 --> 00:10:11,410 It's no surprise to me that someone like Micheaux would, 153 00:10:11,477 --> 00:10:14,680 like someone like Malcolm X, their early life, 154 00:10:14,747 --> 00:10:17,550 their formative years be shaped by some degree 155 00:10:17,650 --> 00:10:20,386 of working on the train, working on a railroad. 156 00:10:20,486 --> 00:10:24,757 That's a defining sort of modernist impulse. 157 00:10:28,194 --> 00:10:30,429 And so Micheaux is a part of that. 158 00:10:30,529 --> 00:10:34,367 He is a part of this ebb and flow of culture and ideas 159 00:10:34,433 --> 00:10:39,372 and imagination that the train really embodies. 160 00:10:39,438 --> 00:10:42,241 McGilligan: He met people. He talked to them. 161 00:10:42,308 --> 00:10:43,609 He got books from them. 162 00:10:43,676 --> 00:10:46,412 He learned about society, about politics, 163 00:10:46,479 --> 00:10:49,081 about entertainment in different cities. 164 00:10:49,148 --> 00:10:56,989 {\an8}♪♪ 165 00:10:57,089 --> 00:11:00,092 It really made him a worldly man, 166 00:11:00,159 --> 00:11:01,994 much more than a lot of people 167 00:11:02,094 --> 00:11:04,830 who spend their lives entirely in the Midwest. 168 00:11:04,930 --> 00:11:08,434 [ Train rattling ] 169 00:11:08,534 --> 00:11:17,143 {\an8}♪♪ 170 00:11:17,243 --> 00:11:19,245 Pullman porters, at that point in time, 171 00:11:19,311 --> 00:11:23,115 were both like the greatest job in the world for a black person, 172 00:11:23,215 --> 00:11:26,118 but also the worst job in the world for a black person. 173 00:11:26,185 --> 00:11:29,455 It's terrible because you have to pay for your uniform, 174 00:11:29,522 --> 00:11:31,957 all your meals, laundering. 175 00:11:32,024 --> 00:11:36,495 Eventually, you have no money out of your salary. 176 00:11:36,562 --> 00:11:38,964 One of the things that all the Pullman porters did 177 00:11:39,031 --> 00:11:41,000 was to sell tickets on board, 178 00:11:41,067 --> 00:11:43,402 it was called, but not report that money 179 00:11:43,469 --> 00:11:46,605 and then sometimes steal money. 180 00:11:49,875 --> 00:11:54,814 He was, in fact, fired once for taking money. 181 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,483 They believed he took $5. 182 00:11:57,550 --> 00:11:59,719 So what did he do, being Oscar Micheaux? 183 00:11:59,785 --> 00:12:01,520 [ Laughs ] 184 00:12:01,587 --> 00:12:03,389 He went to St. Louis, 185 00:12:03,489 --> 00:12:06,759 where there was another Pullman porter operation. 186 00:12:06,826 --> 00:12:10,396 He went through the same school and got hired all over again. 187 00:12:10,496 --> 00:12:14,266 {\an8}♪♪ 188 00:12:14,366 --> 00:12:16,202 There's no Internet, they're not checking on him, 189 00:12:16,268 --> 00:12:18,671 and he starts running, you know, the southern route 190 00:12:18,771 --> 00:12:21,407 in a different Pullman porter route. 191 00:12:21,474 --> 00:12:27,747 {\an8}♪♪ 192 00:12:27,847 --> 00:12:32,318 He had tremendous American spirit of "start over again, 193 00:12:32,384 --> 00:12:33,919 let's do it." 194 00:12:33,986 --> 00:12:38,224 He preaches idealism and purity, and sometimes he's... 195 00:12:38,324 --> 00:12:40,826 is a little tricky over here, 196 00:12:40,926 --> 00:12:44,196 getting things done any way he can. 197 00:12:44,263 --> 00:12:53,038 {\an8}♪♪ 198 00:12:55,641 --> 00:12:58,844 Stewart: There was a vast expanse in which 199 00:12:58,911 --> 00:13:02,915 one could imagine one's future was huge. 200 00:13:03,015 --> 00:13:04,517 And then on top of that, Oscar Micheaux 201 00:13:04,583 --> 00:13:06,652 was always a very observant person. 202 00:13:06,719 --> 00:13:08,921 And so as he was working the terrain 203 00:13:08,988 --> 00:13:11,791 and probably doing a lot of shucking and jiving 204 00:13:11,891 --> 00:13:14,593 and the kind of, like, performance that one had to do 205 00:13:14,693 --> 00:13:17,630 to get good tips from white passengers, 206 00:13:17,730 --> 00:13:19,598 he was also listening to them, 207 00:13:19,665 --> 00:13:21,734 and he was listening to the conversations 208 00:13:21,801 --> 00:13:25,104 that white businessmen were having about the opportunities 209 00:13:25,204 --> 00:13:27,273 out West to buy land. 210 00:13:27,373 --> 00:13:29,675 And so he begins to formulate his plans 211 00:13:29,775 --> 00:13:31,844 for becoming a homesteader. 212 00:13:31,911 --> 00:13:33,712 McGilligan: Land was cheap on the roads, 213 00:13:33,813 --> 00:13:36,315 but you had to get the option of bidding 214 00:13:36,415 --> 00:13:38,384 because you were drawn in a lottery. 215 00:13:38,484 --> 00:13:41,086 But if you did, you had a chance if you had money, 216 00:13:41,153 --> 00:13:43,589 and he knew that, and so he took that chance. 217 00:13:43,689 --> 00:13:46,125 {\an8}[ Robert Glasper's "Afro Blue" plays ] 218 00:13:46,192 --> 00:13:51,831 {\an8}♪♪ 219 00:13:51,931 --> 00:13:56,202 ♪ Dream of a land my soul is from ♪ 220 00:13:56,268 --> 00:13:59,805 ♪ I hear the hand stroke of a drum ♪ 221 00:13:59,872 --> 00:14:01,974 ♪ Shades of delight ♪ 222 00:14:02,041 --> 00:14:03,976 ♪ Cocoa hue ♪ 223 00:14:04,043 --> 00:14:06,212 ♪ Rich as the night ♪ 224 00:14:06,278 --> 00:14:08,614 ♪ Afro blue ♪ 225 00:14:08,681 --> 00:14:14,553 {\an8}♪♪ 226 00:14:14,653 --> 00:14:20,526 {\an8}♪♪ 227 00:14:20,593 --> 00:14:22,828 Willmott: Micheaux is really unique in that sense. 228 00:14:22,928 --> 00:14:25,798 I mean, he wasn't afraid to be the only black person 229 00:14:25,865 --> 00:14:27,266 in Gregory, South Dakota. 230 00:14:27,366 --> 00:14:28,601 He wasn't afraid of that, 231 00:14:28,667 --> 00:14:30,202 which a lot of black folks at that time 232 00:14:30,269 --> 00:14:32,404 would have been very frightened about that. 233 00:14:32,471 --> 00:14:35,207 I mean, this is a time of lynching where black folks 234 00:14:35,274 --> 00:14:37,243 are being lynched all over the country. 235 00:14:37,309 --> 00:14:40,212 Black life is not valued very high. 236 00:14:40,279 --> 00:14:49,655 {\an8}♪♪ 237 00:14:49,722 --> 00:14:59,064 {\an8}♪♪ 238 00:14:59,164 --> 00:15:04,003 Land figures extremely prominently in his imagination 239 00:15:04,069 --> 00:15:07,039 but in the life of black people of the time, 240 00:15:07,106 --> 00:15:10,709 because many in the South were promised 241 00:15:10,809 --> 00:15:15,080 their 40 acres and a mule and virtually no one gets that. 242 00:15:15,147 --> 00:15:20,452 {\an8}♪♪ 243 00:15:20,519 --> 00:15:25,791 {\an8}♪♪ 244 00:15:25,891 --> 00:15:30,262 Micheaux, again, saw something, I think, different with that. 245 00:15:30,362 --> 00:15:33,732 It was sort of running through some of the political theory 246 00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:35,401 and some of the ideology of the time, 247 00:15:35,467 --> 00:15:37,403 so I think land is symbolically important, 248 00:15:37,469 --> 00:15:40,239 but to him, it embodied something more. 249 00:15:40,306 --> 00:15:50,082 {\an8}♪♪ 250 00:15:50,149 --> 00:15:52,151 He must have been quite a sight 251 00:15:52,251 --> 00:15:54,687 to his neighbors in South Dakota, 252 00:15:54,753 --> 00:15:58,724 and I think at the core was his work ethic. 253 00:15:58,791 --> 00:16:00,893 I mean, even if he was going to 254 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,862 face some kind of social discrimination, 255 00:16:03,963 --> 00:16:06,131 the fact of the matter was that he put the money together 256 00:16:06,198 --> 00:16:11,870 to buy that land and he worked that land every day. 257 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:14,206 Why, Mr. Baptiste, 258 00:16:14,273 --> 00:16:15,975 I've been looking for you all morning. 259 00:16:16,041 --> 00:16:18,110 I'd begun to think that you weren't coming. 260 00:16:18,210 --> 00:16:20,412 I'm sorry, I intended to be here much sooner, 261 00:16:20,479 --> 00:16:22,481 but something held me up and I couldn't make it. 262 00:16:22,548 --> 00:16:23,882 I hope you'll pardon the delay. 263 00:16:23,949 --> 00:16:26,852 That's quite all right, perfectly all right. 264 00:16:26,919 --> 00:16:29,688 Ultimately, he was able to gain the respect of his neighbors 265 00:16:29,755 --> 00:16:32,524 because he demonstrated in his efforts 266 00:16:32,591 --> 00:16:34,760 that he really was someone 267 00:16:34,827 --> 00:16:37,329 who wanted to make this project work for him. 268 00:16:37,396 --> 00:16:39,865 And I think the fact that he was in South Dakota 269 00:16:39,965 --> 00:16:42,768 and had that unique experience out there 270 00:16:42,835 --> 00:16:45,471 with his white neighbors, that's an experience 271 00:16:45,571 --> 00:16:48,774 that a lot of black folks did not have at that time. 272 00:16:48,841 --> 00:16:50,809 All agreed, Mr. Baptiste. 273 00:16:50,876 --> 00:16:53,545 He can vote at home and work for you. 274 00:16:53,645 --> 00:16:55,514 And I hope he pleases you. 275 00:16:55,614 --> 00:16:59,952 If he does not, you just tell me and I'll attend to him. 276 00:17:00,052 --> 00:17:01,987 Oh, that'll never be necessary. 277 00:17:02,087 --> 00:17:04,690 I try to get along with everyone, Mr. Stewart, 278 00:17:04,757 --> 00:17:07,993 and I'm sure that Bill and I will make it all right. 279 00:17:08,093 --> 00:17:09,628 Well, I'll be running along now. 280 00:17:09,728 --> 00:17:11,764 I'll look for the boy in the morning. 281 00:17:11,830 --> 00:17:13,565 Father, dinner is ready. 282 00:17:13,632 --> 00:17:16,568 Don't let Mr. Baptiste go yet. Ask him to stay for dinner. 283 00:17:16,635 --> 00:17:18,704 By all means. I'd forgotten. 284 00:17:18,804 --> 00:17:20,773 You must stay for dinner, young man. 285 00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:23,709 In the meanwhile, meet my daughter, Miss Agnes, 286 00:17:23,809 --> 00:17:26,111 Mr. Baptiste. 287 00:17:26,211 --> 00:17:28,680 McGilligan: And he also had this dream that he would share it 288 00:17:28,747 --> 00:17:30,482 with what he called "the one true woman." 289 00:17:30,549 --> 00:17:33,485 He was always looking for the one true woman in his life. 290 00:17:33,552 --> 00:17:35,888 While he went off in search of women 291 00:17:35,954 --> 00:17:38,524 that he knew in New York, Chicago, 292 00:17:38,590 --> 00:17:40,726 St. Louis, writing them letters, 293 00:17:40,793 --> 00:17:43,562 seeing what they were like, were they available, 294 00:17:43,629 --> 00:17:45,164 would they like to meet with him, 295 00:17:45,230 --> 00:17:48,534 including his first wife, that he married out of Chicago 296 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:53,839 that was disastrous with a stillborn child on the Rosebud. 297 00:17:53,906 --> 00:17:56,175 [ Wind blowing ] 298 00:17:59,511 --> 00:18:08,087 {\an8}♪♪ 299 00:18:08,153 --> 00:18:09,755 And the worst winter 300 00:18:09,855 --> 00:18:12,891 of the several that he had lived through came. 301 00:18:12,958 --> 00:18:20,432 {\an8}♪♪ 302 00:18:20,532 --> 00:18:24,703 Frigid snow, then rain that turns to ice. 303 00:18:24,803 --> 00:18:34,680 {\an8}♪♪ 304 00:18:34,746 --> 00:18:37,716 And he was stuck in his little shack 305 00:18:37,783 --> 00:18:39,918 because you don't go farming. 306 00:18:42,955 --> 00:18:46,892 He was all alone. He felt he was at the end of his ropes. 307 00:18:46,959 --> 00:18:53,065 {\an8}♪♪ 308 00:18:53,165 --> 00:18:59,304 {\an8}♪♪ 309 00:18:59,404 --> 00:19:01,807 And he had always admired writers 310 00:19:01,874 --> 00:19:06,345 like Jack London and novels like "Martin Eden." 311 00:19:06,445 --> 00:19:08,413 Jack London could write "Martin Eden" 312 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:10,482 as an autobiographical novel, 313 00:19:10,549 --> 00:19:16,889 that he was going through this terrible physical struggle, 314 00:19:16,955 --> 00:19:18,190 trying to live on the prairie, 315 00:19:18,290 --> 00:19:21,026 that he, also, had been spurned by women, 316 00:19:21,126 --> 00:19:23,495 that he, too, was also alone 317 00:19:23,562 --> 00:19:27,232 against forces beyond his control. 318 00:19:27,332 --> 00:19:34,773 {\an8}♪♪ 319 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:42,281 {\an8}♪♪ 320 00:19:42,347 --> 00:19:49,855 {\an8}♪♪ 321 00:19:49,922 --> 00:19:57,362 {\an8}♪♪ 322 00:19:57,429 --> 00:20:02,334 And he becomes not Oscar Micheaux, the failed... 323 00:20:02,401 --> 00:20:04,469 landowner of the Rosebud. 324 00:20:04,570 --> 00:20:08,473 He becomes Oscar Micheaux the successful novelist, 325 00:20:08,574 --> 00:20:10,809 the black novelist telling the true story 326 00:20:10,876 --> 00:20:13,111 of Black American life on the Rosebud. 327 00:20:16,915 --> 00:20:19,284 London: He took his farming experience, 328 00:20:19,351 --> 00:20:21,520 his experiences as a Pullman porter, 329 00:20:21,587 --> 00:20:24,923 and he kind of translated that onto the written page. 330 00:20:24,990 --> 00:20:29,228 {\an8}♪♪ 331 00:20:29,328 --> 00:20:31,230 Then he kind of took the means 332 00:20:31,330 --> 00:20:33,765 to kind of self-publish, as well -- 333 00:20:33,832 --> 00:20:37,769 self-publish and self-distribute these books. 334 00:20:37,836 --> 00:20:40,639 McGilligan: Then he goes to all these neighbors who he's helped. 335 00:20:40,706 --> 00:20:42,708 He'd go to the local bankers and he'd say, 336 00:20:42,808 --> 00:20:45,310 "You give me a little money, you sign this, 337 00:20:45,410 --> 00:20:47,679 I sell some books, I give you some money back." 338 00:20:47,746 --> 00:20:49,815 They all invest in his life story. 339 00:20:49,881 --> 00:20:51,383 He turns his first book 340 00:20:51,483 --> 00:20:56,355 into what we guess is some kind of bestseller. 341 00:21:00,926 --> 00:21:02,394 Good morning, madam. 342 00:21:04,363 --> 00:21:06,064 Having been a Pullman porter, 343 00:21:06,164 --> 00:21:09,968 he knows all these places in America, in his area. 344 00:21:10,035 --> 00:21:12,904 He starts to travel, and he goes to the black communities, 345 00:21:13,005 --> 00:21:14,906 and sometimes he's going door-to-door. 346 00:21:15,007 --> 00:21:17,542 "My name is Oscar Micheaux. I've written this book. 347 00:21:17,643 --> 00:21:19,011 It's my life story." 348 00:21:19,077 --> 00:21:20,612 I have just what you want to be reading. 349 00:21:20,679 --> 00:21:22,114 This is it. 350 00:21:22,214 --> 00:21:24,416 A fine new novel by a Negro author. 351 00:21:24,483 --> 00:21:26,451 Going door-to-door to sell the books. 352 00:21:26,518 --> 00:21:30,355 I think it comes out of that small-town experience 353 00:21:30,455 --> 00:21:31,823 that he had because 354 00:21:31,923 --> 00:21:34,359 I think it was in that small-town experience 355 00:21:34,426 --> 00:21:38,664 that he discovered that you could rely on others 356 00:21:38,764 --> 00:21:42,401 to help you to move your art forward. 357 00:21:42,467 --> 00:21:44,870 And you say it's by a colored author? 358 00:21:44,970 --> 00:21:46,371 What's his name? 359 00:21:46,438 --> 00:21:49,107 I forgot to get his name myself. 360 00:21:49,207 --> 00:21:53,745 Um, here's his picture. Maybe his name is under it. 361 00:21:53,845 --> 00:21:55,347 He has an intelligent face. 362 00:21:55,447 --> 00:21:57,849 He really wanted to get his message out 363 00:21:57,916 --> 00:21:59,484 to the race as a whole. 364 00:21:59,551 --> 00:22:03,955 And so what better way than this new medium of cinema? 365 00:22:04,022 --> 00:22:08,427 Not totally new, but new in the hands of black artists. 366 00:22:10,529 --> 00:22:17,869 {\an8}♪♪ 367 00:22:17,969 --> 00:22:19,971 Cinema has, I think he recognized, 368 00:22:20,038 --> 00:22:21,840 the ability to mirror. 369 00:22:21,907 --> 00:22:25,877 So when black audiences would look at other black characters 370 00:22:25,944 --> 00:22:29,614 on the screen, which was rare at the time, 371 00:22:32,484 --> 00:22:35,454 that could give them a different kind of visual sense 372 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:36,688 of what they could be. 373 00:22:36,755 --> 00:22:38,323 It's a medium that allows someone 374 00:22:38,390 --> 00:22:40,292 to reflect upon themselves, 375 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,295 their own identities and their own possibilities. 376 00:22:43,362 --> 00:22:47,766 {\an8}♪♪ 377 00:22:47,833 --> 00:22:51,036 Peña: This is a little bit before the American cinema 378 00:22:51,103 --> 00:22:54,873 became sort of really industrialized and corporate. 379 00:22:54,973 --> 00:22:57,309 Still, in the 19-teens, 380 00:22:57,409 --> 00:22:59,845 it was very much a mom-and-pop operation. 381 00:22:59,911 --> 00:23:03,148 There were a lot of very small film companies. 382 00:23:06,151 --> 00:23:07,652 There were few, as they called them, 383 00:23:07,719 --> 00:23:11,089 Negro film producers that were feeling that, 384 00:23:11,156 --> 00:23:14,126 you know, "This is a new accessible technology. 385 00:23:14,192 --> 00:23:16,161 We can make our own stories." 386 00:23:18,029 --> 00:23:19,865 Stewart: Noble and George Johnson, 387 00:23:19,965 --> 00:23:22,667 who ran the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 388 00:23:22,768 --> 00:23:27,873 made these really classy, inspiring stories 389 00:23:27,973 --> 00:23:31,443 focused on sort of the middle and upper classes. 390 00:23:34,713 --> 00:23:37,315 Peña: The two African-American brothers, 391 00:23:37,416 --> 00:23:38,917 George and Noble Johnson, 392 00:23:38,984 --> 00:23:43,121 wanted to make a film of Micheaux's third novel, 393 00:23:43,188 --> 00:23:46,491 and they approached him and tried to buy the rights, 394 00:23:46,558 --> 00:23:48,794 but they couldn't come up with enough money, 395 00:23:48,894 --> 00:23:50,162 according to Micheaux. 396 00:23:50,228 --> 00:23:51,863 They must have been like, "Who is this guy?" 397 00:23:51,963 --> 00:23:53,398 Like, coming from nowhere. 398 00:23:53,465 --> 00:23:55,667 He's got this self-published novel, 399 00:23:55,767 --> 00:23:58,670 and he wants to dictate how the film is going to be made. 400 00:23:58,770 --> 00:24:00,705 I mean, they're telling him, you know, maybe it can be two 401 00:24:00,806 --> 00:24:02,441 or three reels, and he's imagining, 402 00:24:02,507 --> 00:24:05,210 no, it's more like seven or eight reels, 403 00:24:05,277 --> 00:24:07,612 and he has never made a film. 404 00:24:07,679 --> 00:24:09,881 The idea is in Oscar Micheaux's head, 405 00:24:09,948 --> 00:24:11,783 "I don't want it to be like a three-reel 406 00:24:11,883 --> 00:24:15,921 or like Noble Johnson's, and this is all a big movie." 407 00:24:15,987 --> 00:24:19,991 {\an8}♪♪ 408 00:24:20,091 --> 00:24:24,596 "I could do this, and I don't need Noble Johnson." 409 00:24:24,696 --> 00:24:30,335 {\an8}♪♪ 410 00:24:30,402 --> 00:24:32,170 That's the kind of person he was. 411 00:24:32,237 --> 00:24:34,005 He just said, "Oh, I'll make it." 412 00:24:34,072 --> 00:24:38,143 {\an8}♪♪ 413 00:24:38,243 --> 00:24:40,212 Prettyman: No one really walks off the street 414 00:24:40,278 --> 00:24:41,947 at that point in time in the '20s and '30s 415 00:24:42,047 --> 00:24:43,715 and says, "I'm going to make a film," right? 416 00:24:43,815 --> 00:24:45,517 You have to have a kind of inroads 417 00:24:45,584 --> 00:24:47,786 into that studio system, largely. 418 00:24:47,886 --> 00:24:52,157 {\an8}♪♪ 419 00:24:52,224 --> 00:24:53,959 Kwei-Armah: I mean, he would get on the phone 420 00:24:54,025 --> 00:24:56,228 or he would write to people that he knew, 421 00:24:56,328 --> 00:24:58,063 to people that he had charmed. 422 00:24:58,163 --> 00:25:00,599 And he said, "This is my vision. 423 00:25:00,665 --> 00:25:05,504 By hard work alone, I shall produce this work." 424 00:25:05,604 --> 00:25:07,973 And people bought into that vision. 425 00:25:08,039 --> 00:25:17,115 {\an8}♪♪ 426 00:25:17,215 --> 00:25:19,951 Willmott: One of the things I've always loved about Micheaux 427 00:25:20,051 --> 00:25:23,388 was that independent spirit, that thing of not letting 428 00:25:23,488 --> 00:25:27,359 anything stop him from being his artistic self. 429 00:25:29,794 --> 00:25:33,865 He gets a little small crew and drives out to Gregory, 430 00:25:33,965 --> 00:25:36,034 South Dakota, to shoot a movie. 431 00:25:39,371 --> 00:25:41,206 They've got the cameras in the back seat. 432 00:25:41,273 --> 00:25:43,675 You've got to remember, too, there's no film school, 433 00:25:43,775 --> 00:25:47,279 no one can teach you how to do this. 434 00:25:47,345 --> 00:25:49,481 I mean, you've got to figure this out 435 00:25:49,548 --> 00:25:51,650 pretty much on your own. 436 00:25:51,716 --> 00:25:56,855 {\an8}♪♪ 437 00:25:56,922 --> 00:26:02,027 {\an8}♪♪ 438 00:26:02,127 --> 00:26:04,729 And I think all of that comes from 439 00:26:04,796 --> 00:26:06,665 that experience in South Dakota. 440 00:26:06,765 --> 00:26:09,868 You've got to go out in the middle of nowhere. 441 00:26:09,968 --> 00:26:13,271 You've got to plant your seed. 442 00:26:13,371 --> 00:26:15,273 You've got to grow the crop, 443 00:26:15,373 --> 00:26:16,775 and then you've got to harvest it, 444 00:26:16,841 --> 00:26:18,643 and then you've got to take it to market. 445 00:26:18,710 --> 00:26:21,313 I mean, he does all of that with film. 446 00:26:21,413 --> 00:26:27,285 {\an8}♪♪ 447 00:26:27,352 --> 00:26:30,956 [ Applause ] 448 00:26:31,022 --> 00:26:38,229 {\an8}♪♪ 449 00:26:38,330 --> 00:26:45,470 {\an8}♪♪ 450 00:26:45,570 --> 00:26:48,373 Micheaux is like that guy who's walking down the street 451 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:51,176 and he's playing the drum, playing the horns, 452 00:26:51,242 --> 00:26:54,813 playing the keyboard, and he's doing it. 453 00:26:57,649 --> 00:27:01,086 It was sort of crowd filmmaking, that the people 454 00:27:01,152 --> 00:27:05,724 that are around you become a part of your practice, 455 00:27:05,790 --> 00:27:07,325 a part of the process. 456 00:27:07,392 --> 00:27:10,929 And that's a very kind of storied practice 457 00:27:10,996 --> 00:27:14,466 in black filmmaking, that you find people around you 458 00:27:14,566 --> 00:27:17,235 to fund your film, to make your film, 459 00:27:17,302 --> 00:27:19,871 to help you distribute, to travel with you. 460 00:27:19,971 --> 00:27:24,109 I mean, so it is, again, a community-based model. 461 00:27:24,209 --> 00:27:27,679 That's why he's the patron saint of black filmmakers, 462 00:27:27,746 --> 00:27:31,950 because he's like the ultimate independent filmmaker. 463 00:27:33,918 --> 00:27:35,453 {\an8}[ Gunshot ] 464 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:43,995 {\an8}♪♪ 465 00:27:44,062 --> 00:27:52,504 {\an8}♪♪ 466 00:27:52,604 --> 00:27:55,874 McGilligan: Micheaux was a big motion-picture fan, 467 00:27:55,974 --> 00:27:58,743 but he didn't love everything he saw. 468 00:27:58,843 --> 00:28:00,945 He hated "Birth of a Nation." 469 00:28:01,046 --> 00:28:09,254 {\an8}♪♪ 470 00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:13,625 "Birth of a Nation" was a real cultural phenomenon. 471 00:28:17,562 --> 00:28:21,166 There had never been a film in the history of the United States 472 00:28:21,232 --> 00:28:25,437 that had had that kind of impact. 473 00:28:25,503 --> 00:28:28,840 More than any other single work, "Birth of a Nation" 474 00:28:28,907 --> 00:28:33,645 transformed American cinema into the American film industry. 475 00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:40,285 Griffith, in his own right, creates the language of film. 476 00:28:40,351 --> 00:28:41,686 He's the first filmmaker 477 00:28:41,753 --> 00:28:44,089 actually to use the juxtaposition 478 00:28:44,155 --> 00:28:50,428 of close-ups and long shots and master shots and cutaways, 479 00:28:50,528 --> 00:28:52,664 you know, in simultaneous action. 480 00:28:52,764 --> 00:28:59,838 {\an8}♪♪ 481 00:28:59,904 --> 00:29:07,011 {\an8}♪♪ 482 00:29:07,078 --> 00:29:09,914 But he does it in the service of what I call 483 00:29:10,014 --> 00:29:11,583 a science-fiction film. 484 00:29:11,683 --> 00:29:17,489 {\an8}♪♪ 485 00:29:17,555 --> 00:29:22,894 Science-fiction films show the fears of the time. 486 00:29:22,961 --> 00:29:24,429 [ Gunshot ] 487 00:29:24,529 --> 00:29:32,103 {\an8}♪♪ 488 00:29:32,203 --> 00:29:39,811 {\an8}♪♪ 489 00:29:39,878 --> 00:29:43,314 "Birth of a Nation" was such a horrendous film 490 00:29:43,414 --> 00:29:45,517 for black folks in America, 491 00:29:45,583 --> 00:29:47,685 and it led to lynchings 492 00:29:47,752 --> 00:29:50,121 that led to the rebirth of the Klan. 493 00:29:50,188 --> 00:29:57,996 {\an8}♪♪ 494 00:29:58,062 --> 00:30:05,904 {\an8}♪♪ 495 00:30:06,004 --> 00:30:10,375 And so he tries to respond to that film the best way he can. 496 00:30:10,441 --> 00:30:18,416 {\an8}♪♪ 497 00:30:18,483 --> 00:30:20,084 London: "Within Our Gates" was a film 498 00:30:20,151 --> 00:30:23,321 that kind of tried to celebrate Black Americans, 499 00:30:23,388 --> 00:30:24,956 especially the black middle class, 500 00:30:25,023 --> 00:30:28,693 and I think that really kind of turned the narrative 501 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:30,929 of "The Birth of a Nation" on its head. 502 00:30:30,995 --> 00:30:37,268 {\an8}♪♪ 503 00:30:37,368 --> 00:30:40,271 Asante: The idea that we could be good, bad, mad, angry -- 504 00:30:40,371 --> 00:30:42,574 we could be all kinds of things -- 505 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,878 it's a direct response to the framing of African-Americans 506 00:30:46,945 --> 00:30:48,746 in "Birth of a Nation." 507 00:30:48,847 --> 00:30:54,919 {\an8}♪♪ 508 00:30:54,986 --> 00:30:59,157 It's a direct answer, which is, "That's not who we are. 509 00:30:59,224 --> 00:31:00,825 This is who we are." 510 00:31:03,895 --> 00:31:06,164 "The Birth of a Nation" features the coming together 511 00:31:06,231 --> 00:31:08,132 of the white north and the white south 512 00:31:08,199 --> 00:31:10,935 through romantic relationship. 513 00:31:13,605 --> 00:31:16,274 And Micheaux does the same thing but with black characters. 514 00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:18,209 A black woman from the South 515 00:31:18,276 --> 00:31:20,478 has a variety of suitors to choose from, 516 00:31:20,545 --> 00:31:24,082 but her relationship with a doctor from the North 517 00:31:24,148 --> 00:31:26,751 is one way that Micheaux is demonstrating the kind of 518 00:31:26,851 --> 00:31:30,989 healing of the black community across regional divides 519 00:31:31,089 --> 00:31:33,758 and a creation of a black uplift marriage 520 00:31:33,825 --> 00:31:37,896 that's going to disprove all of the things about black people 521 00:31:37,962 --> 00:31:40,765 that "The Birth of a Nation" is suggesting. 522 00:31:40,832 --> 00:31:49,874 {\an8}♪♪ 523 00:31:49,974 --> 00:31:52,610 He's speaking to the future of the race, 524 00:31:52,677 --> 00:31:54,412 and that is really emphatic. 525 00:31:54,479 --> 00:31:59,384 It doesn't always make for the most... 526 00:31:59,484 --> 00:32:02,921 kind of like escapist viewing experience. 527 00:32:02,987 --> 00:32:06,891 Instead, it's like he's holding a kind of magnifying glass 528 00:32:06,958 --> 00:32:11,629 to American race relations and really making you look at things 529 00:32:11,729 --> 00:32:15,166 that you had not appreciated with the naked eye. 530 00:32:15,233 --> 00:32:23,441 {\an8}♪♪ 531 00:32:23,508 --> 00:32:31,716 {\an8}♪♪ 532 00:32:31,783 --> 00:32:36,120 Oscar Micheaux, in 1920, in doing that film, 533 00:32:36,187 --> 00:32:38,690 getting that onto American movie screens, 534 00:32:38,756 --> 00:32:40,725 having the guts to go out and do that 535 00:32:40,792 --> 00:32:43,227 and show what he thought was the truth of America 536 00:32:43,328 --> 00:32:44,929 is so far out on the envelope, 537 00:32:44,996 --> 00:32:47,332 it's almost beyond the realm of what's actually possible, 538 00:32:47,398 --> 00:32:48,666 I think, of that time period. 539 00:32:48,766 --> 00:32:50,468 Audiences were completely stunned. 540 00:32:50,568 --> 00:32:53,471 I was stunned when I saw it 60 years later. 541 00:32:53,571 --> 00:33:02,947 {\an8}♪♪ 542 00:33:03,047 --> 00:33:12,490 {\an8}♪♪ 543 00:33:12,557 --> 00:33:14,492 And so we immediately, as a band at that time, 544 00:33:14,559 --> 00:33:19,530 began to make a record about this African-American filmmaker. 545 00:33:19,597 --> 00:33:21,933 We started spending a lot of time with Oscar 546 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:23,735 and all these films, and the music was like -- 547 00:33:23,801 --> 00:33:25,269 [Exhales sharply] -- you know. 548 00:33:25,370 --> 00:33:27,638 It was so compelling that it came out very rapidly. 549 00:33:27,705 --> 00:33:33,277 {\an8}♪♪ 550 00:33:33,344 --> 00:33:38,916 {\an8}♪♪ 551 00:33:38,983 --> 00:33:40,785 Peña: I think one can see, especially, 552 00:33:40,885 --> 00:33:43,788 the flashback in "Within Our Gates" 553 00:33:43,888 --> 00:33:46,824 as a kind of response to Griffith, 554 00:33:46,924 --> 00:33:50,228 but in a certain way, to a certain kind of racism 555 00:33:50,328 --> 00:33:51,763 that was very -- 556 00:33:51,829 --> 00:33:54,665 unfortunately very present in the United States. 557 00:33:54,766 --> 00:34:02,507 {\an8}♪♪ 558 00:34:02,607 --> 00:34:10,415 {\an8}♪♪ 559 00:34:10,481 --> 00:34:18,222 {\an8}♪♪ 560 00:34:18,322 --> 00:34:22,593 He was very much wanting to speak back to 561 00:34:22,693 --> 00:34:26,030 a false narrative, a dishonest narrative 562 00:34:26,130 --> 00:34:29,033 that Griffith propagates in his film. 563 00:34:29,133 --> 00:34:35,907 {\an8}♪♪ 564 00:34:36,007 --> 00:34:42,814 {\an8}♪♪ 565 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:49,687 {\an8}♪♪ 566 00:34:49,754 --> 00:34:53,624 And very much, also, wanting to create some space 567 00:34:53,724 --> 00:34:56,494 for black people to tell their version 568 00:34:56,561 --> 00:35:00,198 of what often happens, for instance, with a lynching -- 569 00:35:00,264 --> 00:35:02,533 that there is often no crime, right? 570 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,670 He wanted to make sure that those things were clear. 571 00:35:05,770 --> 00:35:15,012 {\an8}♪♪ 572 00:35:15,079 --> 00:35:24,288 {\an8}♪♪ 573 00:35:24,355 --> 00:35:27,191 "Birth of a Nation" makes lynching of black folks 574 00:35:27,291 --> 00:35:28,893 a positive thing. 575 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:33,397 And the fact that Micheaux takes those kind of counter-images 576 00:35:33,464 --> 00:35:36,801 that he constructs himself 577 00:35:36,868 --> 00:35:40,271 and targets them directly back at "Birth of a Nation" 578 00:35:40,371 --> 00:35:42,807 is a really, really powerful thing at the time. 579 00:35:42,874 --> 00:35:49,680 {\an8}♪♪ 580 00:35:49,747 --> 00:35:56,587 {\an8}♪♪ 581 00:35:56,687 --> 00:36:00,158 When they showed the mob attack the young boy... 582 00:36:00,224 --> 00:36:07,031 {\an8}♪♪ 583 00:36:07,131 --> 00:36:12,503 and they hang his parents, those kind of images... 584 00:36:12,603 --> 00:36:13,804 you know, you've got to understand, 585 00:36:13,871 --> 00:36:16,307 those were very shocking at that time. 586 00:36:16,407 --> 00:36:24,115 {\an8}♪♪ 587 00:36:24,215 --> 00:36:31,923 {\an8}♪♪ 588 00:36:31,989 --> 00:36:39,764 {\an8}♪♪ 589 00:36:41,832 --> 00:36:49,774 {\an8}♪♪ 590 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:57,748 {\an8}♪♪ 591 00:36:57,848 --> 00:37:01,652 In Micheaux's films, they're not documentary footage, 592 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:03,487 but they're documentary elements. 593 00:37:03,554 --> 00:37:05,489 These are things that are happening in society 594 00:37:05,556 --> 00:37:07,191 and to the black community. 595 00:37:07,291 --> 00:37:10,962 And he takes those things and he weaves them within the story. 596 00:37:11,028 --> 00:37:20,071 {\an8}♪♪ 597 00:37:20,171 --> 00:37:23,441 "Within Our Gates" is kind of an example of that. 598 00:37:23,507 --> 00:37:26,444 And Spike does that. You know, I do that with my films. 599 00:37:28,679 --> 00:37:31,082 Obviously, he didn't do it the way we did it 600 00:37:31,148 --> 00:37:32,917 in "BlacKkKlansman" or "5 Bloods." 601 00:37:32,984 --> 00:37:37,154 But in essence, it's the same kind of idea. 602 00:37:37,255 --> 00:37:39,757 And I think Micheaux was one of the first people 603 00:37:39,824 --> 00:37:42,727 to really do that on a major scale. 604 00:37:45,396 --> 00:37:48,833 I think we can get our head around, 605 00:37:48,933 --> 00:37:53,571 in 1919, knowing, you know, we're in Jim Crow era. 606 00:37:53,638 --> 00:37:55,906 We're in times of mass discrimination 607 00:37:56,007 --> 00:37:58,242 and segregated America. 608 00:37:58,309 --> 00:38:00,945 ♪ Swing low ♪ 609 00:38:01,045 --> 00:38:03,014 ♪ Ooh ♪ 610 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:06,050 ♪ Swing low ♪ 611 00:38:06,117 --> 00:38:08,953 ♪ Ooh ♪ 612 00:38:09,053 --> 00:38:18,763 {\an8}♪♪ 613 00:38:18,829 --> 00:38:22,199 I think what you have to understand about American racism 614 00:38:22,266 --> 00:38:26,170 is that it was very much built around the idea of segregation. 615 00:38:26,237 --> 00:38:32,276 That is my school, your school, my bathroom, your bathroom. 616 00:38:32,343 --> 00:38:33,878 Segregation was about space, 617 00:38:33,944 --> 00:38:37,114 and as long as you stayed in your space, 618 00:38:37,214 --> 00:38:39,317 you could do a fair amount. 619 00:38:39,383 --> 00:38:47,291 {\an8}♪♪ 620 00:38:47,358 --> 00:38:52,063 Whether it be food, shelter, clothing, entertainment -- 621 00:38:52,163 --> 00:38:56,667 all these things that we said, "Well, we know what we like. 622 00:38:56,767 --> 00:38:58,636 We don't see this for us. 623 00:38:58,703 --> 00:39:02,073 We're going to see if we can do for self." 624 00:39:02,173 --> 00:39:04,709 ♪ Swing low ♪ 625 00:39:07,211 --> 00:39:12,316 ♪ Sweet chariot, yes ♪ 626 00:39:12,383 --> 00:39:17,688 ♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪ 627 00:39:17,755 --> 00:39:20,524 So, segregation was isolating, 628 00:39:20,591 --> 00:39:24,495 it was restrictive, it was dangerous, it was scary. 629 00:39:24,562 --> 00:39:27,465 There were tremendous limitations. 630 00:39:27,565 --> 00:39:31,402 But segregation was also, in many spaces, safety 631 00:39:31,469 --> 00:39:35,473 and comfort and familiarity. 632 00:39:35,573 --> 00:39:43,614 {\an8}♪♪ 633 00:39:43,681 --> 00:39:46,751 All of the black leaders and artists and figures 634 00:39:46,851 --> 00:39:48,853 in history during this period, 635 00:39:48,919 --> 00:39:52,723 they found a way to use segregation to their advantage, 636 00:39:52,790 --> 00:39:56,494 and Micheaux is one of the best examples of that. 637 00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:04,668 {\an8}♪♪ 638 00:40:04,769 --> 00:40:08,406 African-Americans were able to develop, within those spaces, 639 00:40:08,472 --> 00:40:09,874 their own institutions. 640 00:40:09,974 --> 00:40:11,909 So since they had their own theater, 641 00:40:12,009 --> 00:40:15,012 they had their own literature, they had their own churches, 642 00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:16,614 why not have their own cinema? 643 00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,517 So in a way, that's where Micheaux fits in. 644 00:40:19,583 --> 00:40:24,288 {\an8}♪♪ 645 00:40:24,355 --> 00:40:25,689 Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to open 646 00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:26,957 the primetime revue. 647 00:40:27,024 --> 00:40:28,492 All right, boys, hit it! 648 00:40:28,559 --> 00:40:32,730 {\an8}♪♪ 649 00:40:32,797 --> 00:40:34,765 Willmott: Hollywood, for the most part, is not making, 650 00:40:34,832 --> 00:40:36,400 not telling our story. 651 00:40:36,467 --> 00:40:38,369 They're not making black films. 652 00:40:38,436 --> 00:40:41,472 And so Micheaux has kind of the corner on the market 653 00:40:41,572 --> 00:40:43,073 in that sense. 654 00:40:43,174 --> 00:40:44,708 He uses that to his advantage. 655 00:40:44,809 --> 00:40:47,745 And so it was kind of the best of times 656 00:40:47,845 --> 00:40:49,747 and the worst of times. 657 00:40:52,750 --> 00:40:57,254 For the Negro people at the time, to see oneself 658 00:40:57,321 --> 00:41:02,493 or a vision of oneself that is moving and animated 659 00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:04,428 and giving off life, 660 00:41:04,528 --> 00:41:08,766 you know what I mean, was a phenomenon. 661 00:41:08,833 --> 00:41:10,534 For me, a movie doesn't become a movie 662 00:41:10,601 --> 00:41:12,203 until it meets an audience, 663 00:41:12,269 --> 00:41:14,605 and that's something that Oscar Micheaux 664 00:41:14,672 --> 00:41:16,207 knew and understood. 665 00:41:16,273 --> 00:41:19,543 He was making films about subjects and issues 666 00:41:19,643 --> 00:41:23,280 that mattered to black people and that mattered, full stop. 667 00:41:23,347 --> 00:41:26,584 [ "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" plays ] 668 00:41:26,684 --> 00:41:34,291 {\an8}♪♪ 669 00:41:34,358 --> 00:41:37,094 Scott-Heron: You will not be able to stay home, brother. 670 00:41:37,161 --> 00:41:39,396 {\an8}♪♪ 671 00:41:39,463 --> 00:41:43,467 You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out. 672 00:41:43,567 --> 00:41:46,003 You will not be able to lose yourself on skag 673 00:41:46,070 --> 00:41:47,838 and skip out for beer during commercials 674 00:41:47,905 --> 00:41:51,108 because the revolution will not be televised. 675 00:41:53,143 --> 00:41:56,747 He was showing history from the African-American point of view, 676 00:41:56,847 --> 00:41:59,683 and his films are very powerful and modern 677 00:41:59,750 --> 00:42:02,887 in terms of their ideas, in terms of their style, 678 00:42:02,953 --> 00:42:06,624 and in terms of their budgetary gloss. 679 00:42:06,724 --> 00:42:13,130 {\an8}♪♪ 680 00:42:13,197 --> 00:42:16,267 Peña: Have read that he wasn't a good filmmaker. 681 00:42:16,367 --> 00:42:18,702 I, on the contrary, and many others think that's 682 00:42:18,802 --> 00:42:21,405 because he was a kind of almost experimental filmmaker, 683 00:42:21,472 --> 00:42:24,441 that he was really somebody who played with form 684 00:42:24,508 --> 00:42:26,510 in a very interesting way. 685 00:42:26,610 --> 00:42:30,147 {\an8}♪♪ 686 00:42:30,247 --> 00:42:33,717 {\an8}[ Woman vocalizing ] 687 00:42:33,784 --> 00:42:42,560 {\an8}♪♪ 688 00:42:42,626 --> 00:42:47,464 He took what he could borrow from things that he likes, 689 00:42:47,565 --> 00:42:50,234 so you see scenes in "Body and Soul" 690 00:42:50,334 --> 00:42:52,670 that are very German expressionist. 691 00:42:52,770 --> 00:42:56,440 Very, very striking, especially when he's doing scenes 692 00:42:56,507 --> 00:42:59,944 with nature and wind storms, which he loved wind. 693 00:43:00,044 --> 00:43:05,182 {\an8}♪♪ 694 00:43:05,282 --> 00:43:10,454 {\an8}♪♪ 695 00:43:10,521 --> 00:43:12,456 So he was very sophisticated, 696 00:43:12,523 --> 00:43:15,292 sometimes in the lighting and in the composition. 697 00:43:15,359 --> 00:43:24,168 {\an8}♪♪ 698 00:43:24,234 --> 00:43:26,070 London: The film that strikes me the most 699 00:43:26,170 --> 00:43:28,772 from Oscar Micheaux's filmography 700 00:43:28,839 --> 00:43:31,008 is "Body and Soul." 701 00:43:31,075 --> 00:43:35,346 I'm a fan of Paul Robeson, and so to see an early work 702 00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:38,282 by Micheaux of a young Paul Robeson 703 00:43:38,349 --> 00:43:40,117 is incredible to me. 704 00:43:40,184 --> 00:43:43,687 Oh, Micheaux was so good at casting! 705 00:43:43,754 --> 00:43:46,790 He was so good at discovering people. 706 00:43:46,890 --> 00:43:50,027 Paul Robeson -- he was an all-American football player. 707 00:43:50,127 --> 00:43:52,796 He had graduated from law school. 708 00:43:52,863 --> 00:43:55,432 He was already known as a serious actor. 709 00:43:55,532 --> 00:43:58,502 This is about 1923, '24. 710 00:43:58,602 --> 00:44:00,871 Paul Robeson doesn't show up in other motion pictures 711 00:44:00,971 --> 00:44:02,773 until the early 1930s. 712 00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:06,477 It's Oscar Micheaux who says, "Paul Robeson. 713 00:44:06,543 --> 00:44:08,312 He's amazing." 714 00:44:08,412 --> 00:44:15,586 {\an8}♪♪ 715 00:44:15,686 --> 00:44:18,255 Prettyman: In "Body and Soul," we have Paul Robeson 716 00:44:18,322 --> 00:44:20,557 playing these two twins. 717 00:44:23,961 --> 00:44:26,430 And people have different readings of the film, 718 00:44:26,530 --> 00:44:30,067 but for me, "Body and Soul" represents 719 00:44:30,167 --> 00:44:33,504 people who would prey on other black people. 720 00:44:33,604 --> 00:44:41,478 {\an8}♪♪ 721 00:44:41,545 --> 00:44:43,247 That was one of the targets that you see 722 00:44:43,313 --> 00:44:44,915 in almost all of his movies 723 00:44:45,015 --> 00:44:48,085 is he takes his shot at these jackleg preachers. 724 00:44:48,152 --> 00:44:52,556 {\an8}♪♪ 725 00:44:52,623 --> 00:44:54,992 Jackleg preachers were preachers 726 00:44:55,092 --> 00:44:56,827 that were basically con men -- 727 00:44:56,927 --> 00:44:59,530 you know, preachers that took folks' money -- 728 00:44:59,596 --> 00:45:00,964 innocent folks' money -- 729 00:45:01,031 --> 00:45:04,401 and kind of used religion to really manipulate them 730 00:45:04,468 --> 00:45:07,071 and to really steal from them ultimately. 731 00:45:07,171 --> 00:45:13,143 {\an8}♪♪ 732 00:45:13,243 --> 00:45:19,249 {\an8}♪♪ 733 00:45:19,316 --> 00:45:22,352 Micheaux was never afraid to sort of -- 734 00:45:22,453 --> 00:45:23,654 what could you say? 735 00:45:23,721 --> 00:45:25,889 As one newspaper accused him, 736 00:45:25,956 --> 00:45:29,727 "wash the dirty linen of the community in public." 737 00:45:29,793 --> 00:45:32,162 Prettyman: It's an important sort of commentary 738 00:45:32,229 --> 00:45:34,331 of black cultural and religious life 739 00:45:34,398 --> 00:45:36,433 when some in the black community wanted him to. 740 00:45:36,533 --> 00:45:40,471 They wanted a kind of pristine treatment of black life, 741 00:45:40,571 --> 00:45:42,439 and he didn't want to do that. 742 00:45:42,506 --> 00:45:44,408 He wanted to show some of the complexity 743 00:45:44,475 --> 00:45:46,844 and some of the contradictions and, again, 744 00:45:46,910 --> 00:45:49,680 ways in which they might have been exploiting each other, 745 00:45:49,747 --> 00:45:51,915 pastors and preachers exploiting their own people. 746 00:45:52,015 --> 00:45:55,986 Willmott: He wasn't, like, anti-God or anti-religion. 747 00:45:56,086 --> 00:45:58,388 I think he was a man of faith, actually, 748 00:45:58,489 --> 00:46:00,491 but he saw religion as a tool 749 00:46:00,557 --> 00:46:02,626 being used against black folks in many ways. 750 00:46:02,726 --> 00:46:05,529 And it very much kind of, you know -- 751 00:46:05,596 --> 00:46:07,564 talking about the televangelist kind of preachers 752 00:46:07,631 --> 00:46:11,568 that will come later on in American life. 753 00:46:11,635 --> 00:46:20,410 {\an8}♪♪ 754 00:46:20,477 --> 00:46:29,286 {\an8}♪♪ 755 00:46:29,353 --> 00:46:31,188 The more difficult part 756 00:46:31,288 --> 00:46:33,357 was really the distribution and exhibition 757 00:46:33,423 --> 00:46:37,327 because those sectors were very quickly taken over 758 00:46:37,394 --> 00:46:40,397 by the big Hollywood studios. 759 00:46:40,464 --> 00:46:46,503 {\an8}♪♪ 760 00:46:46,603 --> 00:46:48,772 [ Train whistle blows ] 761 00:46:48,839 --> 00:46:52,376 {\an8}♪♪ 762 00:46:52,442 --> 00:46:54,144 [ Birds chirping ] 763 00:46:55,946 --> 00:46:57,748 [ Horn honks ] 764 00:46:57,848 --> 00:47:01,752 {\an8}♪♪ 765 00:47:01,852 --> 00:47:06,123 The idea that someone will say, "Here. 766 00:47:06,190 --> 00:47:07,991 Here's what I'm going to do. 767 00:47:08,091 --> 00:47:12,996 I'm also going to get on the train and bring my movies 768 00:47:13,063 --> 00:47:16,033 to the movie theaters and play them. 769 00:47:19,002 --> 00:47:21,605 I'm going to make sure that they're seen. 770 00:47:21,672 --> 00:47:24,041 I'm not going to wait on anybody else to do it. 771 00:47:24,107 --> 00:47:25,676 I'm simply going to do it." 772 00:47:25,776 --> 00:47:29,847 Now the amount of person hours that must have taken 773 00:47:29,913 --> 00:47:33,317 to literally have your film under your arm 774 00:47:33,383 --> 00:47:35,853 and turn up and play it. 775 00:47:35,919 --> 00:47:42,726 {\an8}♪♪ 776 00:47:42,793 --> 00:47:46,730 He never gets a real great distribution deal. 777 00:47:46,797 --> 00:47:49,766 He did it all those years pretty much on his own. 778 00:47:49,833 --> 00:47:51,568 But it was really great how he did it 779 00:47:51,635 --> 00:47:54,271 because he connected with black churches. 780 00:47:54,371 --> 00:47:56,240 He connected with black organizations. 781 00:47:56,306 --> 00:48:00,277 He created a black network of movie theaters. 782 00:48:00,344 --> 00:48:02,312 [ Jazz standard plays ] 783 00:48:02,412 --> 00:48:04,915 {\an8}♪♪ 784 00:48:05,015 --> 00:48:06,950 {\an8}♪ Down South, the banjos cry, too ♪ 785 00:48:07,050 --> 00:48:08,986 {\an8}♪ Deep blues, the darkest sky, too ♪ 786 00:48:09,086 --> 00:48:10,921 {\an8}♪ When the moonbeam's on the bayou ♪ 787 00:48:10,988 --> 00:48:12,890 {\an8}♪ That's how rhythm was born ♪ 788 00:48:12,956 --> 00:48:16,627 Every major city that had an African-American community, 789 00:48:16,727 --> 00:48:18,195 there would be cinemas there, 790 00:48:18,295 --> 00:48:21,031 and Micheaux would sort of strike deals 791 00:48:21,131 --> 00:48:23,600 with the owners of these movie theaters 792 00:48:23,667 --> 00:48:27,437 to have their films play at certain times of the week. 793 00:48:27,504 --> 00:48:33,810 {\an8}♪♪ 794 00:48:33,877 --> 00:48:37,214 Willmott: Most of them were white movie theaters 795 00:48:37,281 --> 00:48:40,384 that would allow blacks to come in after hours, 796 00:48:40,484 --> 00:48:44,388 They called it midnight rambles, where black folks could come in 797 00:48:44,488 --> 00:48:46,890 oftentimes around 10:00 or 11:00, 798 00:48:46,957 --> 00:48:49,526 maybe even midnight to show a film, 799 00:48:49,593 --> 00:48:53,230 and Micheaux was there, and black audiences are hungry 800 00:48:53,330 --> 00:48:56,400 to see themselves on the screen. 801 00:48:56,466 --> 00:49:05,976 {\an8}♪♪ 802 00:49:06,043 --> 00:49:15,485 {\an8}♪♪ 803 00:49:15,552 --> 00:49:19,489 And not only was he sort of selling his films 804 00:49:19,556 --> 00:49:21,692 and showing his films himself, 805 00:49:21,758 --> 00:49:25,028 traveling to this network of black theaters, 806 00:49:25,128 --> 00:49:26,730 but while he was at the theaters, 807 00:49:26,797 --> 00:49:29,666 talking to the managers about what cut he would get 808 00:49:29,766 --> 00:49:32,235 from the box office and so forth, 809 00:49:32,336 --> 00:49:36,306 he was also making deals to fund his next films. 810 00:49:36,406 --> 00:49:40,277 {\an8}♪♪ 811 00:49:40,344 --> 00:49:43,113 Peña: He would spend maybe a couple of weeks 812 00:49:43,213 --> 00:49:44,715 in New York, two or three weeks, 813 00:49:44,815 --> 00:49:46,883 then he would take the same print 814 00:49:46,950 --> 00:49:49,353 and then go to Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia, 815 00:49:49,453 --> 00:49:51,722 maybe go to Pittsburgh, and from Pittsburgh, 816 00:49:51,788 --> 00:49:55,592 go to Washington -- very often carrying the prints themselves, 817 00:49:55,692 --> 00:49:57,294 you know, from place to place. 818 00:49:57,361 --> 00:49:59,196 And eventually, they would hit 819 00:49:59,296 --> 00:50:02,366 just about every African-American community. 820 00:50:02,432 --> 00:50:11,408 {\an8}♪♪ 821 00:50:11,475 --> 00:50:14,845 He would travel and take the film cans -- 822 00:50:14,911 --> 00:50:18,448 film prints himself to each location, 823 00:50:18,515 --> 00:50:21,084 sometimes even disguising the name of the film 824 00:50:21,151 --> 00:50:25,522 to kind of evade the censors and avoid them cutting up 825 00:50:25,589 --> 00:50:28,158 his original prints. 826 00:50:28,225 --> 00:50:30,594 If Doctor Jalop should augur, 827 00:50:30,694 --> 00:50:32,763 then go see Captain Renfrew. 828 00:50:32,829 --> 00:50:34,431 You know where he lives -- 829 00:50:34,531 --> 00:50:36,466 the big house on the hill. 830 00:50:36,566 --> 00:50:40,871 {\an8}♪♪ 831 00:50:40,971 --> 00:50:43,774 Willmott: He's responding to the suffering of black folks 832 00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:45,475 in the nation at the time. 833 00:50:45,542 --> 00:50:48,678 And so the things he wanted to show on film 834 00:50:48,745 --> 00:50:52,349 connected specifically to those issues. 835 00:50:52,449 --> 00:50:53,917 My mother's sick, Doctor. 836 00:50:53,984 --> 00:50:55,485 Who is it? 837 00:50:55,552 --> 00:50:56,953 She's been taken suddenly with -- 838 00:50:57,054 --> 00:50:59,756 The fat Negress who lives in the house on 12th Street. 839 00:50:59,823 --> 00:51:01,425 Isn't she? 840 00:51:01,525 --> 00:51:05,829 No, Caroline Sanders owes me a $5 doctor bill already. 841 00:51:05,929 --> 00:51:08,065 I'm tired of you Negroes running up doctor bills 842 00:51:08,165 --> 00:51:09,666 nobody can collect. 843 00:51:09,766 --> 00:51:11,368 Never have any money. 844 00:51:13,103 --> 00:51:16,306 "Within Our Gates," which we spoke about before, was banned, 845 00:51:16,406 --> 00:51:19,476 I believe in Chicago and maybe in a couple of other places. 846 00:51:19,543 --> 00:51:22,446 Why? Well, because of course, it showed a lynching. 847 00:51:22,512 --> 00:51:27,517 {\an8}♪♪ 848 00:51:27,584 --> 00:51:31,755 All of those things he knew that he wanted to do were things 849 00:51:31,855 --> 00:51:35,625 that the black audiences really wanted to see. 850 00:51:38,829 --> 00:51:45,669 He knew that hunger for telling the real black experience. 851 00:51:45,769 --> 00:51:50,040 He felt that the ways in which he was being censored, 852 00:51:50,107 --> 00:51:53,443 these were not just affronts to his artistic vision, 853 00:51:53,510 --> 00:51:55,846 but they were politically motivated. 854 00:51:55,912 --> 00:51:58,482 These were attempts to try to keep black people 855 00:51:58,548 --> 00:52:00,283 from really feeling 856 00:52:00,350 --> 00:52:02,586 and seeing the weight of the political messages 857 00:52:02,686 --> 00:52:04,988 that he was including in his films. 858 00:52:05,088 --> 00:52:08,725 And he was resisting that over and over and over again. 859 00:52:08,792 --> 00:52:14,231 {\an8}♪♪ 860 00:52:14,331 --> 00:52:19,769 {\an8}♪♪ 861 00:52:19,836 --> 00:52:22,873 There were some cases in which he would take the seal 862 00:52:22,973 --> 00:52:25,976 that he got for another film and put it on a new film 863 00:52:26,042 --> 00:52:27,611 so that it seemed like that one had passed 864 00:52:27,677 --> 00:52:29,312 the censor board when really it hadn't. 865 00:52:29,412 --> 00:52:31,548 He was slapped on the wrist for that. 866 00:52:34,751 --> 00:52:36,786 He made around 40 films. 867 00:52:36,887 --> 00:52:40,023 He did this during a time when African-Americans 868 00:52:40,123 --> 00:52:44,728 were restricted from so many different types of activities. 869 00:52:44,794 --> 00:52:52,068 {\an8}♪♪ 870 00:52:52,169 --> 00:52:54,471 And it is like an archeological dig, 871 00:52:54,571 --> 00:52:55,906 I reference often. 872 00:52:56,006 --> 00:52:57,507 You know, I'd love to sit with all of them. 873 00:52:57,607 --> 00:53:00,944 I'd wish the miracle that rather than 80 percent 874 00:53:01,044 --> 00:53:04,748 of them are un-found, that maybe it was the other way 'round -- 875 00:53:04,848 --> 00:53:07,751 that 80 percent of them will be found. 876 00:53:11,588 --> 00:53:14,090 Willmott: Their job was to get the movie made, 877 00:53:14,157 --> 00:53:15,825 try to get it out there best you can, 878 00:53:15,926 --> 00:53:18,695 try to find the audience, maybe make your money back, 879 00:53:18,762 --> 00:53:21,665 maybe make some money if you were lucky. 880 00:53:21,765 --> 00:53:24,568 It wasn't preserving those films. 881 00:53:24,634 --> 00:53:29,206 {\an8}♪♪ 882 00:53:29,272 --> 00:53:31,274 {\an8}[ Speaking Italian ] 883 00:53:44,554 --> 00:53:48,725 {\an8}♪♪ 884 00:53:52,128 --> 00:53:54,231 {\an8}[ Jazz standard plays ] 885 00:53:54,331 --> 00:54:01,705 {\an8}♪♪ 886 00:54:01,805 --> 00:54:09,246 {\an8}♪♪ 887 00:54:09,312 --> 00:54:16,720 {\an8}♪♪ 888 00:54:16,786 --> 00:54:19,522 Oh, Mr. Hawkins, I see you're here. 889 00:54:19,589 --> 00:54:21,825 Uh, let me take your hat and cane. 890 00:54:21,925 --> 00:54:27,397 {\an8}♪♪ 891 00:54:27,464 --> 00:54:32,969 {\an8}♪♪ 892 00:54:33,036 --> 00:54:36,706 You know, Harlem is the capital of Black America. 893 00:54:36,806 --> 00:54:40,277 And at that time, it was the most exciting place 894 00:54:40,343 --> 00:54:42,145 for a black person to be in the country. 895 00:54:42,245 --> 00:54:44,547 ♪ Chicago's all right, it's got Wrigley Field ♪ 896 00:54:44,648 --> 00:54:46,783 ♪ and Soldier's Field and Marshall Field ♪ 897 00:54:46,883 --> 00:54:51,521 ♪ And it's on a nice lake ♪ 898 00:54:51,588 --> 00:54:55,525 ♪ But it hasn't got the hansoms in the park ♪ 899 00:54:55,592 --> 00:54:58,495 ♪ It hasn't got a skyline after dark ♪ 900 00:54:58,561 --> 00:55:01,164 ♪ That's why New York's my home ♪ 901 00:55:01,231 --> 00:55:02,666 ♪ Never let me leave it ♪ 902 00:55:02,766 --> 00:55:05,468 ♪ New York's my home sweet home ♪ 903 00:55:05,568 --> 00:55:09,839 Micheaux probably moved to New York because Harlem 904 00:55:09,906 --> 00:55:14,744 had become the biggest black belt in America. 905 00:55:14,844 --> 00:55:21,918 {\an8}♪♪ 906 00:55:21,985 --> 00:55:23,953 Enjoyable to live 907 00:55:24,054 --> 00:55:27,891 but also is a place where he could raise money, 908 00:55:27,957 --> 00:55:29,492 meet people. 909 00:55:32,962 --> 00:55:37,467 It allowed him to really connect to a black audience 910 00:55:37,567 --> 00:55:41,604 and to the black community in a way he'd never had before. 911 00:55:41,671 --> 00:55:43,907 [ Up-tempo jazz music playing ] 912 00:55:44,007 --> 00:55:49,679 {\an8}♪♪ 913 00:55:49,746 --> 00:55:55,385 {\an8}♪♪ 914 00:55:55,485 --> 00:55:58,755 Intellectually, artistically, politically, 915 00:55:58,855 --> 00:56:02,092 fires were being set. 916 00:56:02,158 --> 00:56:06,830 Inspirations were being propelled into the mainstream, 917 00:56:06,930 --> 00:56:11,167 into the consciousness of your fellow man and woman. 918 00:56:11,234 --> 00:56:20,710 {\an8}♪♪ 919 00:56:20,810 --> 00:56:24,481 So many amazing figures that came out at that time 920 00:56:24,547 --> 00:56:27,117 that formed a kind of little nucleus, 921 00:56:27,183 --> 00:56:29,152 which we call the Harlem Renaissance. 922 00:56:33,123 --> 00:56:36,559 So he would have been mixing and mingling with 923 00:56:36,626 --> 00:56:39,662 the cream of the crop of writers and artists and painters 924 00:56:39,763 --> 00:56:42,332 that were living in Harlem both before, 925 00:56:42,399 --> 00:56:45,268 after, and during the Harlem Renaissance. 926 00:56:45,368 --> 00:56:52,275 {\an8}♪♪ 927 00:56:52,375 --> 00:56:59,249 {\an8}♪♪ 928 00:56:59,315 --> 00:57:01,851 It was the only place in the country like that. 929 00:57:01,918 --> 00:57:05,054 And so he was surrounded by people 930 00:57:05,121 --> 00:57:06,890 trying to do the same thing he was doing. 931 00:57:06,956 --> 00:57:09,392 The thing that's that's really unique about him 932 00:57:09,492 --> 00:57:13,463 in Harlem, though, is that no one else 933 00:57:13,563 --> 00:57:17,934 is really able to make independent films 934 00:57:18,001 --> 00:57:20,236 the way he did in Harlem. 935 00:57:20,303 --> 00:57:23,173 {\an8}[ Suspenseful music plays ] 936 00:57:23,239 --> 00:57:28,244 {\an8}♪♪ 937 00:57:28,311 --> 00:57:30,447 Peña: "Murder in Harlem" -- it's another film 938 00:57:30,513 --> 00:57:32,682 that has last-minute surprises 939 00:57:32,749 --> 00:57:35,084 and people popping out of the shadows. 940 00:57:35,151 --> 00:57:43,526 {\an8}♪♪ 941 00:57:43,593 --> 00:57:46,496 I've been in love with you for a long time. 942 00:57:46,563 --> 00:57:49,132 Come on, little one. Give me a kiss. 943 00:57:49,199 --> 00:57:57,307 {\an8}♪♪ 944 00:57:57,407 --> 00:57:59,242 And there's Oscar Micheaux, playing 945 00:57:59,309 --> 00:58:02,111 a little role in the movie. 946 00:58:02,212 --> 00:58:03,847 Another one. 947 00:58:05,915 --> 00:58:09,452 "That tall Negro did this. 948 00:58:09,519 --> 00:58:12,689 He will try to lay it on the night." 949 00:58:12,755 --> 00:58:14,491 Big and charming. 950 00:58:14,557 --> 00:58:17,494 "Tall Negro." 951 00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:22,632 "He will try to lay it on the night." 952 00:58:22,732 --> 00:58:24,667 What can it mean? 953 00:58:24,767 --> 00:58:27,170 He's like a P.T. Barnum with his presence. 954 00:58:27,237 --> 00:58:31,841 I'm tall. But why, they... 955 00:58:31,908 --> 00:58:35,512 No, no. They couldn't be trying to lay this on me. 956 00:58:35,612 --> 00:58:38,281 I don't know anything about it, except finding a body. 957 00:58:38,348 --> 00:58:39,916 I am a -- 958 00:58:40,016 --> 00:58:41,885 Come, we're taking you with us. 959 00:58:41,951 --> 00:58:43,786 Come on. 960 00:58:43,887 --> 00:58:46,155 And there's Oscar Micheaux's wife. 961 00:58:46,222 --> 00:58:49,125 A very, very important person. 962 00:58:49,192 --> 00:58:50,760 Alice B. Russell. 963 00:58:50,827 --> 00:58:56,799 {\an8}♪♪ 964 00:58:56,866 --> 00:59:01,204 Very refined, very quiet, in the background, 965 00:59:01,271 --> 00:59:03,306 monitoring and making sure things 966 00:59:03,406 --> 00:59:05,508 are going according to plan. 967 00:59:07,544 --> 00:59:09,812 No need pretending you don't hear me, 968 00:59:09,879 --> 00:59:12,148 'cause I'm gonna fix you anyhow. 969 00:59:12,248 --> 00:59:14,050 [ Dramatic music plays ] 970 00:59:14,117 --> 00:59:19,789 {\an8}♪♪ 971 00:59:19,889 --> 00:59:25,528 {\an8}♪♪ 972 00:59:25,595 --> 00:59:28,464 It's kind of influenced by this actual murder 973 00:59:28,565 --> 00:59:31,968 that took place in the South 974 00:59:32,035 --> 00:59:36,039 that had led to the lynching of a Jewish person. 975 00:59:36,105 --> 00:59:40,009 He took that story and kind of moves it around 976 00:59:40,076 --> 00:59:43,313 and makes it about, really, the black community. 977 00:59:43,413 --> 00:59:49,719 {\an8}♪♪ 978 00:59:49,786 --> 00:59:56,125 {\an8}♪♪ 979 00:59:58,761 --> 01:00:02,365 [ Clock chiming ] 980 01:00:17,947 --> 01:00:20,850 There's a wonderful moment in the film that I love very much, 981 01:00:20,917 --> 01:00:22,518 which is, if you recall, 982 01:00:22,585 --> 01:00:25,989 it starts off with, like, an African-American night watchman. 983 01:00:26,089 --> 01:00:28,424 [ Whimsical music plays ] 984 01:00:28,524 --> 01:00:33,630 {\an8}♪♪ 985 01:00:33,730 --> 01:00:37,133 And he's going around with his flashlight and whatever. 986 01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:44,607 {\an8}♪♪ 987 01:00:44,674 --> 01:00:47,010 Suddenly, the flashlight hits upon 988 01:00:47,076 --> 01:00:49,112 the dead body of a woman. 989 01:00:49,212 --> 01:00:55,985 {\an8}♪♪ 990 01:00:56,085 --> 01:01:02,892 {\an8}♪♪ 991 01:01:02,959 --> 01:01:06,396 And suddenly, he does something which is so amazing. 992 01:01:10,066 --> 01:01:12,235 He just looks at the camera, 993 01:01:12,335 --> 01:01:15,204 and he looks at the camera for like maybe 10 seconds, 994 01:01:15,271 --> 01:01:18,107 almost as if to say, "Oh, my God. 995 01:01:18,207 --> 01:01:20,910 I'm African-American. She's white. 996 01:01:21,010 --> 01:01:23,079 I'm going to get in trouble." 997 01:01:23,146 --> 01:01:25,314 [ Frantic music plays ] 998 01:01:25,415 --> 01:01:32,088 {\an8}♪♪ 999 01:01:32,155 --> 01:01:38,828 {\an8}♪♪ 1000 01:01:38,928 --> 01:01:41,064 It's a very modern film in that sense, 1001 01:01:41,164 --> 01:01:42,765 that he's responding 1002 01:01:42,832 --> 01:01:44,834 to what's happening right at that moment. 1003 01:01:44,934 --> 01:01:46,869 And people would -- everybody still does that. 1004 01:01:46,969 --> 01:01:49,105 When something big happens in the news, 1005 01:01:49,205 --> 01:01:52,075 people immediately try to capitalize on that 1006 01:01:52,175 --> 01:01:54,877 and make a film that directly speaks to that. 1007 01:01:54,944 --> 01:01:57,647 And that's what Micheaux was trying to do. 1008 01:01:57,714 --> 01:02:00,049 {\an8}[ Singing operatically ] 1009 01:02:00,116 --> 01:02:04,187 {\an8}♪♪ 1010 01:02:04,287 --> 01:02:09,392 Sound becomes incorporated into filmmaking in 1927. 1011 01:02:09,492 --> 01:02:17,834 {\an8}♪♪ 1012 01:02:17,934 --> 01:02:19,869 This was a challenge for many filmmakers, 1013 01:02:19,969 --> 01:02:23,272 and it was a huge challenge for independent filmmakers 1014 01:02:23,372 --> 01:02:25,641 and certainly black independent filmmakers. 1015 01:02:25,708 --> 01:02:27,810 Micheaux was the only one who could make the transition 1016 01:02:27,877 --> 01:02:30,313 from silent filmmaking to sound filmmaking 1017 01:02:30,413 --> 01:02:33,716 because he was able to talk up the financing 1018 01:02:33,783 --> 01:02:35,485 to be able to do it. 1019 01:02:35,551 --> 01:02:41,591 {\an8}♪♪ 1020 01:02:41,691 --> 01:02:47,663 {\an8}♪♪ 1021 01:02:47,764 --> 01:02:52,068 Micheaux's 1931 film "The Exile" is the first 1022 01:02:52,168 --> 01:02:54,971 black independent sound film. 1023 01:02:55,037 --> 01:03:00,810 {\an8}♪♪ 1024 01:03:00,877 --> 01:03:04,213 I kind of think they're all the same in many ways, you know? 1025 01:03:04,280 --> 01:03:07,283 That the novels kind of become the films in some ways. 1026 01:03:07,350 --> 01:03:10,153 A lot of the themes of the novels 1027 01:03:10,253 --> 01:03:12,121 end up being in his films. 1028 01:03:12,188 --> 01:03:16,392 {\an8}♪♪ 1029 01:03:16,492 --> 01:03:18,427 McGilligan: Based on his second-to-last novel 1030 01:03:18,528 --> 01:03:20,463 called "The Wind from Nowhere," 1031 01:03:20,563 --> 01:03:23,032 which is a rewrite of his first novel 1032 01:03:23,132 --> 01:03:26,803 and his third novel -- again, his life story on the Rosebud. 1033 01:03:34,410 --> 01:03:37,146 Morning, Miss. My name is Baptiste. 1034 01:03:37,246 --> 01:03:39,282 I'm calling to see a Mr. Stewart 1035 01:03:39,348 --> 01:03:40,750 about hiring his boy. 1036 01:03:40,850 --> 01:03:42,118 Is he in? 1037 01:03:42,185 --> 01:03:44,787 Yes. Will you come in? 1038 01:03:44,887 --> 01:03:46,322 Thanks. 1039 01:03:46,389 --> 01:03:50,560 {\an8}♪♪ 1040 01:03:50,626 --> 01:03:53,162 He was always interested in race 1041 01:03:53,229 --> 01:03:55,464 in terms of kind of interested 1042 01:03:55,565 --> 01:03:59,135 in interracial relationships -- love relationships. 1043 01:03:59,202 --> 01:04:00,870 Father, dinner is ready. 1044 01:04:00,970 --> 01:04:03,873 Don't let Mr. Baptiste go yet. Ask him to stay for dinner. 1045 01:04:03,973 --> 01:04:06,042 By all means. I'd forgotten. 1046 01:04:06,108 --> 01:04:08,077 You must stay for dinner, young man. 1047 01:04:08,144 --> 01:04:11,447 That's a common kind of theme in a lot of his stories. 1048 01:04:11,514 --> 01:04:12,949 And I think, you know, 1049 01:04:13,049 --> 01:04:15,852 people kind of speculate that he might have had 1050 01:04:15,918 --> 01:04:18,254 a relationship out there in Gregory. 1051 01:04:18,321 --> 01:04:26,996 {\an8}♪♪ 1052 01:04:27,063 --> 01:04:29,932 Well, he had a personal experience on the Rosebud 1053 01:04:29,999 --> 01:04:31,834 that deeply affected him. 1054 01:04:31,934 --> 01:04:36,906 Now, he was very conscious of laws 1055 01:04:37,006 --> 01:04:41,644 that forbade white women to marry black men 1056 01:04:41,711 --> 01:04:44,247 or black women to marry white men. 1057 01:04:44,313 --> 01:04:49,518 And he finds himself, one day, getting attracted to someone 1058 01:04:49,585 --> 01:04:52,989 whose name we can't be sure of. 1059 01:04:53,089 --> 01:04:58,995 We know she exists because he wrote about her many times. 1060 01:04:59,095 --> 01:05:01,197 She was probably Scottish, 1061 01:05:01,264 --> 01:05:03,232 the daughter of another settler, 1062 01:05:03,332 --> 01:05:06,936 blonde, white. 1063 01:05:07,003 --> 01:05:10,873 Sometimes I hardly know whether I'm awake 1064 01:05:10,973 --> 01:05:12,642 or dreaming this. 1065 01:05:12,708 --> 01:05:15,278 I only know that I'm happy. 1066 01:05:15,344 --> 01:05:17,546 Very happy. 1067 01:05:17,647 --> 01:05:20,249 Although I've just met you, dear, 1068 01:05:20,316 --> 01:05:22,885 you've been in my heart for years and years. 1069 01:05:22,952 --> 01:05:26,789 At some point, he's alone with her, 1070 01:05:26,889 --> 01:05:31,160 and they fall into each other's arms and probably make love. 1071 01:05:31,227 --> 01:05:34,263 You are the first one I have ever loved. 1072 01:05:34,363 --> 01:05:36,065 Oh, my darling. 1073 01:05:36,165 --> 01:05:43,572 {\an8}♪♪ 1074 01:05:43,639 --> 01:05:46,475 Because he's not a prude -- he's not a prudish guy, 1075 01:05:46,542 --> 01:05:49,645 and he was very attracted to her. 1076 01:05:49,712 --> 01:05:54,317 And this caused him no end of heartbreak 1077 01:05:54,383 --> 01:05:57,887 because he felt he couldn't marry her 1078 01:05:57,954 --> 01:06:00,323 because it was against the law. 1079 01:06:00,389 --> 01:06:08,998 {\an8}♪♪ 1080 01:06:09,065 --> 01:06:17,640 {\an8}♪♪ 1081 01:06:17,707 --> 01:06:20,509 Interracial relationship was an important issue 1082 01:06:20,609 --> 01:06:22,812 for Micheaux, as it is still today, 1083 01:06:22,878 --> 01:06:27,016 because it's kind of that final barrier in many ways, 1084 01:06:27,083 --> 01:06:30,953 you know, when interracial relationships are -- 1085 01:06:31,053 --> 01:06:33,356 when people have to, in a sense, 1086 01:06:33,456 --> 01:06:36,125 accept someone of another race in their family. 1087 01:06:36,192 --> 01:06:37,727 The idea I think Micheaux had 1088 01:06:37,793 --> 01:06:41,430 is if you can break that barrier down in some ways, 1089 01:06:41,530 --> 01:06:44,734 everything racially moves forward. 1090 01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:46,569 Kiss me. 1091 01:06:46,635 --> 01:06:54,110 {\an8}♪♪ 1092 01:06:54,210 --> 01:06:56,345 We know that he also dealt with some 1093 01:06:56,445 --> 01:06:59,548 controversial subject matters like interracial marriage. 1094 01:06:59,648 --> 01:07:01,917 But specifically, I think his treatment of women 1095 01:07:01,984 --> 01:07:03,886 is really interesting. 1096 01:07:06,922 --> 01:07:10,626 He was telling stories in the way that we should. 1097 01:07:10,726 --> 01:07:12,962 We should give women characters, obviously, dimension. 1098 01:07:13,029 --> 01:07:16,265 We need to give black characters dimension. 1099 01:07:16,365 --> 01:07:19,602 And we should offer them complexity. 1100 01:07:19,668 --> 01:07:21,504 You know, that's one of the things that I'm always 1101 01:07:21,604 --> 01:07:24,473 really grateful to him for. 1102 01:07:24,573 --> 01:07:27,043 Psst! 1103 01:07:27,109 --> 01:07:28,344 Sissy! 1104 01:07:28,444 --> 01:07:30,613 Sissy! 1105 01:07:30,679 --> 01:07:34,250 And I often have an issue with the phrase, you know, 1106 01:07:34,316 --> 01:07:36,585 one is "ahead of their time." 1107 01:07:39,588 --> 01:07:42,691 I think Oscar Micheaux was right where he needed to be 1108 01:07:42,758 --> 01:07:45,227 in terms of the way he told his stories. 1109 01:07:45,327 --> 01:07:46,829 Moreover, it really is 1110 01:07:46,929 --> 01:07:49,432 and was society that was behind the times. 1111 01:07:54,003 --> 01:07:55,671 Hello, Mr. Martin. Come right in. 1112 01:07:55,771 --> 01:07:57,640 Hello, Bev. How are you? 1113 01:07:57,706 --> 01:07:58,874 Fine, Gary. How are you? 1114 01:07:58,974 --> 01:08:00,242 Oh, just so-so. 1115 01:08:00,309 --> 01:08:01,877 you tell me it is. 1116 01:08:01,944 --> 01:08:03,913 It isn't worthwhile. I'm only going to stay a few minutes. 1117 01:08:04,013 --> 01:08:05,347 You can at least sit down. 1118 01:08:05,448 --> 01:08:08,384 Well, thank you. 1119 01:08:08,484 --> 01:08:10,953 You know, I'm casting a picture. 1120 01:08:11,053 --> 01:08:14,690 And I want a girl to play [Indistinct]. 1121 01:08:14,757 --> 01:08:16,992 Just a touch of life in one of his Harlem places, 1122 01:08:17,093 --> 01:08:18,494 you understand? 1123 01:08:18,561 --> 01:08:22,431 I think if you were to say that Oscar Micheaux 1124 01:08:22,531 --> 01:08:27,503 was a silent filmmaker who never really comfortably 1125 01:08:27,603 --> 01:08:31,073 transitioned to sound, you would not be far off. 1126 01:08:31,173 --> 01:08:39,748 {\an8}♪♪ 1127 01:08:39,849 --> 01:08:43,085 If you look at his silent films the ones that we have -- 1128 01:08:43,152 --> 01:08:46,355 such as "Within Our Gates," "Symbol of the Unconquered," 1129 01:08:46,455 --> 01:08:49,091 "Body and Soul" -- they're very fluid, 1130 01:08:49,158 --> 01:08:50,693 you know, and they're very inventive, 1131 01:08:50,759 --> 01:08:53,195 and he feels really at home with it. 1132 01:08:53,262 --> 01:09:02,238 {\an8}♪♪ 1133 01:09:02,304 --> 01:09:05,274 The transition to sound was really dramatic. 1134 01:09:05,374 --> 01:09:07,209 The fact that you couldn't move the camera 1135 01:09:07,276 --> 01:09:10,679 with the same kind of freedom. 1136 01:09:10,746 --> 01:09:12,014 You wished to see me? 1137 01:09:12,081 --> 01:09:13,349 Pardon me, but this is...? 1138 01:09:13,449 --> 01:09:14,917 Ida Morton, thank you. 1139 01:09:14,984 --> 01:09:17,786 And that there was a kind of eloquence to silent film, 1140 01:09:17,887 --> 01:09:20,956 the nuances of acting, instead of having to speak up. 1141 01:09:21,023 --> 01:09:22,191 Gary Martin. 1142 01:09:22,291 --> 01:09:23,492 The motion-picture producer? 1143 01:09:23,559 --> 01:09:25,094 Well, something like that, I guess. 1144 01:09:25,161 --> 01:09:27,963 Oh, I'm delighted! Glad! Everything! 1145 01:09:28,030 --> 01:09:29,632 You know, these early sound films, 1146 01:09:29,732 --> 01:09:35,037 people are really loud and the dialogue seems corny. 1147 01:09:35,104 --> 01:09:37,840 Oh, Mr. Martin, whatever can you wish to speak with me about? 1148 01:09:37,907 --> 01:09:39,909 Pictures -- motion pictures. 1149 01:09:40,009 --> 01:09:41,610 How would you like to work in one? 1150 01:09:41,677 --> 01:09:45,147 Oh, how would I like to go to Heaven without dying? 1151 01:09:45,247 --> 01:09:49,718 I think it really paralyzed Micheaux a little bit, formally. 1152 01:09:49,785 --> 01:09:56,825 {\an8}♪♪ 1153 01:10:00,729 --> 01:10:10,372 {\an8}♪♪ 1154 01:10:10,439 --> 01:10:12,908 {\an8}[ Speaking Italian ] 1155 01:10:20,883 --> 01:10:27,756 {\an8}♪♪ 1156 01:10:42,605 --> 01:10:49,211 {\an8}♪♪ 1157 01:10:49,278 --> 01:10:55,884 {\an8}♪♪ 1158 01:10:55,951 --> 01:11:02,558 {\an8}♪♪ 1159 01:11:02,625 --> 01:11:04,226 I think you can draw a direct line 1160 01:11:04,326 --> 01:11:09,064 from an Oscar Micheaux to a Spike Lee 1161 01:11:09,164 --> 01:11:12,935 to a Sam Pollard to a Shaka King. 1162 01:11:13,002 --> 01:11:16,839 And so for young filmmakers, this is an incredible story 1163 01:11:16,905 --> 01:11:19,008 that you can draw inspiration from. 1164 01:11:19,074 --> 01:11:21,310 So absolutely, every black filmmaker 1165 01:11:21,410 --> 01:11:24,713 has Oscar Micheaux to thank for opening the door. 1166 01:11:24,813 --> 01:11:29,285 {\an8}♪♪ 1167 01:11:29,351 --> 01:11:31,553 Asante: I'm working in development on a project now 1168 01:11:31,654 --> 01:11:33,889 that is set exactly in the period 1169 01:11:33,956 --> 01:11:36,492 that Oscar began making films, 1170 01:11:36,558 --> 01:11:39,128 and his work is an important kind of document 1171 01:11:39,194 --> 01:11:42,798 and an important element of research for me, 1172 01:11:42,865 --> 01:11:44,199 to see the world through the eyes 1173 01:11:44,266 --> 01:11:46,001 of a black man at the time, 1174 01:11:46,068 --> 01:11:49,672 as opposed to the framing that African-Americans 1175 01:11:49,772 --> 01:11:51,874 were given at the time on screen, 1176 01:11:51,974 --> 01:11:54,076 which was, outside of Oscar, 1177 01:11:54,143 --> 01:11:56,045 always through white people, really. 1178 01:11:57,646 --> 01:11:59,815 The winner is Sidney Poitier. 1179 01:11:59,882 --> 01:12:02,484 [ Cheers and applause ] 1180 01:12:02,551 --> 01:12:04,320 Announcer: Mr. Poitier is the first Negro 1181 01:12:04,386 --> 01:12:05,921 to win such a high award, 1182 01:12:05,988 --> 01:12:08,791 and the announcement is received warmly by the audience. 1183 01:12:08,891 --> 01:12:12,227 [ Applause ] 1184 01:12:15,130 --> 01:12:19,802 It is a long journey to this moment. 1185 01:12:19,868 --> 01:12:27,676 I am naturally indebted to countless numbers of people. 1186 01:12:27,743 --> 01:12:33,449 For all of them, oh, I should say a very special thank you. 1187 01:12:33,515 --> 01:12:38,120 [ Applause ] 1188 01:12:38,187 --> 01:12:43,492 {\an8}♪♪ 1189 01:12:43,559 --> 01:12:47,629 Peña: As America began to finally move somewhat away 1190 01:12:47,730 --> 01:12:51,467 from the sort of segregationist regime 1191 01:12:51,567 --> 01:12:54,770 that it was and Hollywood began to employ people 1192 01:12:54,837 --> 01:12:57,673 like Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier 1193 01:12:57,773 --> 01:13:00,909 and other very fine African-American actors -- 1194 01:13:01,009 --> 01:13:04,046 not only employ them but to give them dignified roles. 1195 01:13:04,113 --> 01:13:06,615 African-American audiences, as well as others, 1196 01:13:06,682 --> 01:13:10,152 flocked to these movies and were very supportive of the them. 1197 01:13:10,252 --> 01:13:16,692 {\an8}♪♪ 1198 01:13:16,759 --> 01:13:18,694 The Civil Rights movement and everything, 1199 01:13:18,761 --> 01:13:21,864 looking toward this new amazing opportunity 1200 01:13:21,964 --> 01:13:24,466 that's happening and this new, exciting success 1201 01:13:24,566 --> 01:13:26,668 that black folks are having on the big screen, 1202 01:13:26,769 --> 01:13:29,772 it makes Micheaux fade away and disappear. 1203 01:13:29,838 --> 01:13:34,510 {\an8}♪♪ 1204 01:13:34,610 --> 01:13:36,678 Stewart: He was still pretty much saying 1205 01:13:36,745 --> 01:13:40,749 the same kinds of things that he was saying in 1919, 1920, 1206 01:13:40,849 --> 01:13:43,752 about lifting yourself up by the bootstraps, 1207 01:13:43,852 --> 01:13:47,589 not necessarily engaged in a more nuanced critique 1208 01:13:47,689 --> 01:13:50,826 of white systems of oppression. 1209 01:13:50,926 --> 01:13:56,565 {\an8}♪♪ 1210 01:13:56,632 --> 01:13:58,600 Willmott: But it's interesting because 1211 01:13:58,667 --> 01:14:02,271 it's also the Civil Rights movement that rediscover him. 1212 01:14:02,371 --> 01:14:05,040 People start to want to honor black history, 1213 01:14:05,107 --> 01:14:08,477 and people want to know kind of where we came from. 1214 01:14:08,544 --> 01:14:10,746 And when people started to look back, 1215 01:14:10,846 --> 01:14:13,549 one of the first people they found in a film was, 1216 01:14:13,649 --> 01:14:15,584 of course, Oscar Micheaux. 1217 01:14:15,684 --> 01:14:21,089 {\an8}♪♪ 1218 01:14:21,156 --> 01:14:24,493 McGilligan: 1951, he was 67 years old. 1219 01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:27,196 Everybody who saw him in his final years 1220 01:14:27,262 --> 01:14:30,532 said he was disheartened, even bitter, 1221 01:14:30,599 --> 01:14:34,870 and nearly broke. 1222 01:14:34,970 --> 01:14:38,674 ♪ I did not become someone different ♪ 1223 01:14:38,774 --> 01:14:42,611 ♪ That I did not want to be ♪ 1224 01:14:42,678 --> 01:14:45,414 ♪ But I'm new here ♪ 1225 01:14:45,481 --> 01:14:47,516 ♪ Will you show me around? ♪ 1226 01:14:50,986 --> 01:14:54,957 ♪ No matter how far wrong you've gone ♪ 1227 01:14:58,760 --> 01:15:02,030 ♪ You can always turn around ♪ 1228 01:15:03,966 --> 01:15:08,070 McGilligan: We don't know why he was in Charlotte, where he died. 1229 01:15:08,170 --> 01:15:10,506 Knowing Micheaux, even if he was dying, 1230 01:15:10,606 --> 01:15:14,443 he was probably selling, you know, his books. 1231 01:15:14,510 --> 01:15:17,513 But it's one of many mysteries about him. 1232 01:15:17,613 --> 01:15:21,016 There are mysteries that remain to be discovered about him, 1233 01:15:21,083 --> 01:15:23,118 and I think that's for the next generation. 1234 01:15:23,185 --> 01:15:28,190 {\an8}♪♪ 1235 01:15:28,290 --> 01:15:33,295 {\an8}♪♪ 1236 01:15:33,362 --> 01:15:35,731 Okay, Oscar. 1237 01:15:35,797 --> 01:15:37,332 All right. 1238 01:15:37,399 --> 01:15:41,069 {\an8}♪♪ 1239 01:15:41,169 --> 01:15:43,205 I'm Bernice Gray. 1240 01:15:43,272 --> 01:15:46,508 I'm a proud cousin of Oscar Micheaux. 1241 01:15:51,313 --> 01:15:53,148 All right. 1242 01:15:53,248 --> 01:15:55,317 Now. 1243 01:15:55,384 --> 01:15:58,253 Pastor: You're not perfect, but you're usable. 1244 01:15:58,320 --> 01:16:00,923 {\an8}♪♪ 1245 01:16:00,989 --> 01:16:05,093 I may be favored, but I got my flaws. 1246 01:16:05,160 --> 01:16:07,462 {\an8}♪ Mm, mm, mm ♪ 1247 01:16:07,563 --> 01:16:09,965 {\an8}♪ Mm, mm ♪ 1248 01:16:10,032 --> 01:16:13,969 {\an8}♪♪ 1249 01:16:14,036 --> 01:16:16,104 ♪ Mm, mm, mm ♪ 1250 01:16:16,204 --> 01:16:20,175 ♪ Mm, mm ♪ 1251 01:16:20,242 --> 01:16:23,045 McGilligan: And Metropolis is such a podunk today. 1252 01:16:23,111 --> 01:16:24,613 It has lost its cachet 1253 01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:28,684 as an important little place in southern Illinois, 1254 01:16:28,750 --> 01:16:33,121 that they were desperate to create some image 1255 01:16:33,188 --> 01:16:36,558 for themselves. 1256 01:16:36,625 --> 01:16:40,462 And they decided to declare themselves the home of Superman. 1257 01:16:40,562 --> 01:16:45,167 ♪ Mm, hmm, hmm, mm ♪ 1258 01:16:49,671 --> 01:16:53,775 It's typical United States of America. 1259 01:16:53,842 --> 01:16:57,079 They will salute fictional heroes like Superman 1260 01:16:57,145 --> 01:17:00,115 or Rocky in Philadelphia, 1261 01:17:00,215 --> 01:17:02,884 based on the film, as opposed to the real people, 1262 01:17:02,951 --> 01:17:05,921 especially the real black people who have lived there. 1263 01:17:05,988 --> 01:17:13,829 {\an8}♪♪ 1264 01:17:13,929 --> 01:17:17,032 Oscar Micheaux is the real Superman 1265 01:17:17,132 --> 01:17:20,369 because he didn't allow kryptonite to stop him. 1266 01:17:20,435 --> 01:17:22,671 He didn't allow anything to stop him. 1267 01:17:22,771 --> 01:17:24,973 And they threw everything they had at him, 1268 01:17:25,040 --> 01:17:28,443 and he still was able to get the job done. 1269 01:17:28,510 --> 01:17:38,353 {\an8}♪♪ 1270 01:17:38,453 --> 01:17:40,889 The first time I saw Oscar Micheaux, 1271 01:17:40,956 --> 01:17:42,758 I was in high school. 1272 01:17:42,824 --> 01:17:48,230 I was struck by his direct attitude, 1273 01:17:48,330 --> 01:17:50,732 and why was the attitude important? 1274 01:17:50,799 --> 01:17:55,237 Because the attitude is contrary to the stereotype. 1275 01:17:55,303 --> 01:18:00,175 He was great before, but there were barriers to him. 1276 01:18:00,242 --> 01:18:02,444 He would be great today. 1277 01:18:02,511 --> 01:18:06,448 {\an8}♪♪ 1278 01:18:06,515 --> 01:18:09,317 In all fairness, you have to fight for history. 1279 01:18:09,384 --> 01:18:11,319 You just can't say history is going to happen. 1280 01:18:11,386 --> 01:18:14,489 You have to fight for it and fight for the memory 1281 01:18:14,556 --> 01:18:17,693 because past is past no matter what. 1282 01:18:17,759 --> 01:18:20,929 So you've got to fight for the remembrance of the past. 1283 01:18:20,996 --> 01:18:22,931 {\an8}♪ Your local superhero from the hood ♪ 1284 01:18:22,998 --> 01:18:24,733 {\an8}♪ Iron Man Stark's got the good ♪ 1285 01:18:24,800 --> 01:18:27,469 {\an8}♪ Not that good-good like Snoop, I bulletproofed the Coop ♪ 1286 01:18:27,569 --> 01:18:29,438 {\an8}♪ Polished up the suit and gathered the troops ♪ 1287 01:18:29,504 --> 01:18:31,073 {\an8}♪ Got a brand new ray gun ♪ 1288 01:18:31,173 --> 01:18:32,674 {\an8}♪ Me and DOOM heading down to the range ♪ 1289 01:18:32,774 --> 01:18:34,209 {\an8}♪ To shoot in the matrix ♪ 1290 01:18:34,276 --> 01:18:35,477 {\an8}♪ Catch bullets with my hands and teeth ♪ 1291 01:18:35,544 --> 01:18:36,812 {\an8}♪ I break faces ♪ 1292 01:18:36,878 --> 01:18:38,814 {\an8}♪ Wild car chases, don of all ages ♪ 1293 01:18:38,880 --> 01:18:40,849 {\an8}♪ I saved the world, that's fucking history pages ♪ 1294 01:18:40,916 --> 01:18:42,851 {\an8}♪ My Wu crescent shines in the sky at night ♪ 1295 01:18:42,918 --> 01:18:45,187 {\an8}♪ Watch how my eagle on my wrist take off into flight ♪ 1296 01:18:45,287 --> 01:18:47,489 {\an8}♪ All my might, white glass teeth that write ♪ 1297 01:18:47,556 --> 01:18:49,891 {\an8}♪ Ain't a bird or a plane, it's a ghost on the mic ♪ 1298 01:18:49,958 --> 01:18:51,893 {\an8}♪ Two hammers and a diamond-blade sword ♪ 1299 01:18:51,960 --> 01:18:54,830 {\an8}♪ Thicker than the Ford F-150, niggas couldn't lift me ♪ 1300 01:18:54,930 --> 01:18:56,832 {\an8}♪ As if, stance mad stiff ♪ 1301 01:18:56,932 --> 01:18:59,067 {\an8}♪ Metal Face DOOM, beware, he bear gifts ♪ 1302 01:18:59,167 --> 01:19:01,603 {\an8}♪ Cab for the shift, overwork, overtime ♪ 1303 01:19:01,670 --> 01:19:03,638 {\an8}♪ Jerk, you been warned, go for mine ♪ 1304 01:19:03,705 --> 01:19:05,807 {\an8}♪ In the dance hall, play the wall like handball ♪ 1305 01:19:05,874 --> 01:19:08,443 {\an8}♪ Till his pants fall, brawl till last call ♪ 1306 01:19:08,510 --> 01:19:10,112 {\an8}♪ Loose cannon, squeeze drip ♪ 1307 01:19:10,212 --> 01:19:12,748 {\an8}♪ Off to rip this one for the Gipper, get gypped ♪ 1308 01:19:12,848 --> 01:19:15,283 {\an8}♪ That nig, ya dig? Don't tip the strippers ♪ 1309 01:19:15,350 --> 01:19:17,352 {\an8}♪ Foamposite mask, matching slippers ♪ 1310 01:19:17,452 --> 01:19:19,454 {\an8}♪ Yo, where's Starks? Backpack of ammo ♪ 1311 01:19:19,521 --> 01:19:21,990 {\an8}♪ Warriors said, "Let your flags blow," camo ♪ 1312 01:19:22,090 --> 01:19:24,025 {\an8}♪ These dudes is toys like Wham-O ♪ 1313 01:19:24,126 --> 01:19:25,927 {\an8}♪ Damn though, chip paint driving on the gravel ♪ 1314 01:19:25,994 --> 01:19:27,262 {\an8}♪ With the Lambo ♪ 1315 01:19:27,362 --> 01:19:29,064 {\an8}♪ Blam-o ♪ 1316 01:19:29,164 --> 01:19:37,639 {\an8}♪♪ 1317 01:19:37,706 --> 01:19:46,148 {\an8}♪♪ 1318 01:19:46,248 --> 01:19:54,723 {\an8}♪♪ 1319 01:19:54,790 --> 01:20:03,265 {\an8}♪♪ 1320 01:20:03,365 --> 01:20:11,807 {\an8}♪♪ 1321 01:20:11,873 --> 01:20:20,348 {\an8}♪♪