Within Our Gates
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Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed this groundbreaking motion picture considered one of the first of a genre that would become known as "race films." Many critics have seen Within Our Gates as Micheaux's response to D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, in which African Americans were depicted as generally negative stereotypes, as they were in almost all films of the day.
Despite Micheaux's limited budget and limited production values, it still effectively confronted racism head on with its story of a teacher (Evelyn Preer) determined to start a school for poor black children. Contemporary viewers may find it difficult to defend Micheaux's balancing act between authenticity and acceptability to white audiences, but that's what he believed was necessary simply to get the film made.
Wikipedia says that it is the oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director.
Within Our Gates was added to the National Film Registry in 1992.
Watch it right here.
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