SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) BODY AND SOUL (1925) Body and Soul (1925), the best-known silent film of pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, offered Paul Robeson, the great singer/actor/athlete, his first opportunity in films. Robeson has a dual role, playing both an escaped convict who presents himself as a minister, and the convictÕs upstanding brother. The "bad" brother extorts from the owner of a gambling house and betrays an honest girl, bringing them both to ruin. Although it was a theme that proved controversial with his audiences, Micheaux turned several times to the subject of corruption and dishonesty among the clergy. Made by black filmmakers for black audiences, Body and Soul has an all-black cast except for one white actor, whose supporting character is shown selling rancid meat Ð a symbol of the exploitation of blacks. The crew was largely African American as well, although Micheaux employed some white cameramen who worked cheaply because they were not in the cinematographersÕ union. Robeson (1898-1976), the son of a minister who had been an escaped slave, had attended Rutgers University, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, track and football; and Columbia Law School. By 1924, when his wife Essie concluded arrangements for Paul to star in Body and Soul, Robeson had already distinguished himself on the concert stage. For his film debut, his wife obtained a contract that called for a salary of $100 per week, plus 3% of the gross after the first $40,000 in receipts. Robeson appeared at the request of Eugene OÕNeill in his plays All GodÕs Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones, also starring in the 1933 film version of the latter work. He made a handful of other films, notably singing "OlÕ Man River" in Show Boat (1936), but his leftist political views aroused great controversy, and he made his final movie appearance in Tales of Manhattan (1942). He continued his concert career in Europe through the 1960s and has become an outstanding symbol of black consciousness and pride. Producer/Director: Oscar Micheaux Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux, from his novel Principal Cast: Paul Robeson (The Reverend/ReverendÕs Brother), Mercedes Gilbert (The Girl), Julia Theresa Russell (Her Mother), Lawrence Chenault (Former Jailmate), Marshall Rogers (Speakeasy Proprietor) BW-77m. By Roger Fristoe SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) SCAR OF SHAME (1927) Perhaps the most important accomplishment of the black-cast films of the 1920s-40s is the window they offer contemporary viewers into the mores and lifestyles of middle-class African-American life. In spite of the often crude cinematic techniques -- essentially due to the limited funds and facilities that were available to filmmakers in this market -- these films remain undeniably fascinating. The Scar of Shame (1927) is particularly intriguing among black-cast films because of its obvious ambition. Not satisfied to be merely a Hollywood-derivative drama with black actors, it endeavors to explore the delicate and often painful divisions that existed within African-American society of the day (a rift that was termed the "twoness" of black culture by educator and activist W.E.B. DuBois). Lucia Lynn Moses stars as Louise, a young woman who is protected from an abusive stepfather (Norman Johnstone) by Alvin, an ambitious young composer (Harry Henderson). Although Louise is obviously beneath his social station, Alvin secretly marries her. With the help of a street hoodlum named Spike (William E. Pettus), the stepfather hatches a plan to regain control of his daughter. Louise comes to believe Alvin is ashamed of her, so she welcomes the life of vice, wealth and disgrace they propose. Alvin confronts them, shots are fired, and Louise receives a wound in her neck, a powerful symbol of her moral corruption. The essential crisis of The Scar of Shame is the struggle to rise above the downward pull of the "street," and this conflict is represented quite effectively in the film's well-orchestrated (at times overwrought) dramatics. Just as Louise was unable to escape the influence of her stepfather, Alvin finds his promising future endangered by the secret romance of his past, suggesting that every level of black society faces obstacles beyond the obvious black/white struggle. As was often the case with black-cast films, financing was provided by white investors (the productions of Oscar Micheaux stand as notable exceptions). The Scar of Shame was a product of the Colored Players Company, an enterprise founded by David Starkman, who also served as the film's screenwriter. The director, Frank Peregini, and cinematographer, Al Ligouri, were also white. Established in Philadelphia in 1926 with a $100,000 investment, the CPC produced only three films before it was absorbed by another company. Tragically, neither of the other two films, A Prince of His Race (1926) and Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1921), survive today. In order to appear in the film, Moses, a dancer at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club, was required to commute (between performances) to the CHC studios in Philadelphia. As screenwriter, Starkman may have organized the narrative plot of the film -- which was a direct descendent of the exaggerated Victorian melodrama -- but the more subtle themes of class separation were no doubt developed in cooperation with his African-American collaborators more attuned to the issues of caste within black society. The film argues that environment, education and ambition are the determining factors in a person's life, but the film subverts its own message with the suggestion that position within the race is, to a degree, determined by the darkness of skin (Alvin and Louise are fair, while the stepfather and Spike are dark-complexioned). This correlation of light and dark with good and evil was a convention of the melodramatic stage, and was also employed in a number of black-cast films of the day. Regardless of this flaw, The Scar of Shame remains an invaluable document of African-American history, for its forthright exploration of identity and ambition within the black middle class. Perhaps because the filmmakers and stars knew the The Scar of Shame would be viewed almost exclusively by black audiences, they felt free to explore the issues of racial identity that were beyond the awareness of white viewers, issues which would not be approached by the mainstream cinema until decades later. Director: Frank Peregini Producer: David Starkman Screenplay: David Starkman Cinematography: Al Liguori Principal Cast: Harry Henderson (Alvin Hillyard), Norman Johnstone (Eddie Blake), Ann Kennedy (Mrs. Lucretia Green), Lucia Lynn Moses (Louise Howard), William Pettus (Spike Howard), Lawrence Chenault (Ralph Hathaway), Pearl McCormack (Alice Hathaway) BW-76m. By Bret Wood SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) WITHIN OUR GATES (1920) For many years, Oscar Micheaux's 1920 feature, Within Our Gates, was considered a lost film until a copy was discovered in the Spanish Film Archive in Madrid in 1990. Dubbed in Spanish and titled La Negra, the film was restored by the Smithsonian Institute after being unavailable for 72 years. Some sources have stated that the film was based on the Leo M. Frank murder case; other references have said Oscar Micheaux's 1921 film The Gunsaulus Mystery was a re-edited version of Within Our Gates. We know these claims are inaccurate but, for the record, here is a brief synopsis of the existing film: After a successful harvest, black sharecropper Jasper Landry prepares a bill for plantation owner Philip Girdlestone. Eph, a local gossip and troublemaker, visits Girdlestone and warns him that Landry plans to educate his children and will not compromise on the payment he expects to receive from the plantation owner. When Landry calls on Girdlestone, he is rudely dismissed but is later accused of his murder by Eph when the plantation owner is discovered dead in his home. Within Our Gates stirred up considerable controversy during its original release because it contained a scene in which a black man is lynched by a white mob. At first the film, which eventually had its premiere in Chicago, was rejected by the Chicago Board of Movie Censors who were afraid the movie could possibly inspire a race riot. However, a second screening of the film by the press, Chicago politicians, and prominent members of the black community convinced the Censors to grant the film a permit since it addressed horrendous conditions that needed reform. Not everyone agreed with this assessment, however, and some of the most vigorous protestors against the film were black activists. Not surprisingly, white theatre owners in the south who catered to black patronage were also offended by Within Our Gates and refused to book it. One theatre owner in Shreveport, Louisiana, admitted "it was a very dangerous picture to show in the south" and his comment was typical for the region. Micheaux, no stranger to controversy, refused to compromise his material despite being locked out of numerous distribution channels and went on to tackle other unpopular but equally topical problems in films like God's Stepchildren (1938), in which a light-skinned black tries to pass for white, and Birthright (1939), the story of a black Harvard graduate who encounters opposition from both whites and members of his own race. While Micheaux was well aware that audiences wanted to be entertained, he also felt it was his duty to confront challenging issues that would, in his words, "leave an impression" on audiences. Director/Producer: Oscar Micheaux Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux Music: Philip Carli Principal Cast: Evelyn Preer (Sylvia Landry), Flo Clements (Alma Prichard), James D. Ruffin (Conrad Drebert), Jack Chenault (Larry Prichard), William Smith (Detective Philip Gentry), Charles D. Lucas (Dr. V Vivian), Bernice Ladd (Mrs. Geraldine Stratton) BW-79m. By Jeff Stafford SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED (1921) The Symbol of the Unconquered (1921), a silent Western produced by black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux for black audiences, also featured an all-black cast headed by Iris Hall as a beautiful woman who travels West to inspect an inherited gold mine. Kicked out of the communityÕs only hotel, she is cared for by a prospector (Lawrence Chenault) whose life she later saves. Producer-screenwriter-director Micheaux (1884-1951), the most prolific of black film pioneers who created an "alternate" cinema, made some 40 feature-length films during the period 1919-1948. Many have since been lost. He was the first African-American to produce a feature-length film and the first to produce a sound film. Producer-writer-director-actor Robert Townsend has described Micheaux as "my idol. He inspired me to do my first film." Filmmaker Spike Lee also frequently credits Micheaux as an inspiration. The son of freed slaves, Micheaux was raised in poverty and had little formal education. His entrepreneurial career began when he published his own novels and traveled about the country selling the books and shares in his small publishing firm. He financed his early films by securing advance bookings from theater managers to whom he showed fabricated "stills." In his films, Micheaux seldom addressed the problems of the ghetto and focused on the black middle class. Still, he dealt with controversial subjects including lynching, white-on-black crime, corrupt clergymen, and intra-racial discrimination. Micheaux described his films as "propaganda" designed to "uplift the race." His films represented a radical departure from HollywoodÕs portrayal of blacks as servants and brought diverse social issues to the screen for the first time. In probably his best-known work, Body and Soul (1925), Micheaux introduced the great singer-actor Paul Robeson to movie audiences. Leigh Whipper (1876-1975), who appears as an Indian Fakir in Symbol of the Unconquered, was the first black member of Actors Equity and the founder of the Negro Actors Guild. A highly regarded Broadway actor, he memorably played Crooks in Lewis MilestoneÕs film version of Of Mice and Men (1939). WhipperÕs other screen credits include Road to Zanzibar (1941), Undercurrent (1946) and The Young DonÕt Cry (1957). Director/Producer: Oscar Micheaux Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux Principal Cast: Iris Hall (Eve Mason), Walker Thompson (Hugh Van Allen), Lawrence Chenault (Jefferson Driscoll), Mattie Wilkes (Mother Driscoll), Louis Dean (August Barr), Leigh Whipper (Tugi), E.G. Tatum (Abraham) BW-59m. By Roger Fristoe