The Separate Cinema

Interview by Jeremy Geltzer

Dr. Regester, could you explain to me what the Separate Cinema is. What is a Race Film, and when did they emerge?

Separate Cinema really refers to an independent movement of film making that occurred outside the Hollywood system...this film making was launched primarily by independent film makers who catered to the tastes, interests and appetites of African American audiences. And they did so primarily because the African American voices had been excluded, ignored and alienated by the larger industry. They craved black images on the screen and this independent movement was created to appeal to these audiences.

Oscar Micheaux has emerged as a hero of this movement, as a prolific director, as a man driven with a vision and a passion, but he still remains shrouded in mystery. Who was Oscar Micheaux?

Oscar Micheaux emerged out of this independent film making movement. He is still one of the most prolific black film makers to exist, having made nearly 50 films between 1918 and 1948. Even today, no other single American black film maker has surpassed the number of films made by Micheaux. He's also important for the kinds of films he was making and the issues he invoked in these films. He's regarded as an incredibly controversial film maker. Some of his films were even protested by members of the African American community. They viewed [some of his images] as incitement. He was accused of "airing the dirty laundry of the African American Community."

Oscar Micheaux created a star system that mimicked Hollywood's. How did Micheaux's films relate to the Hollywood dream factory?

He made some films that paralleled some of the genre films that were being made. He made western films. He made murder mysteries. He made romantic films. So in that sense he did parallel the Hollywood studio system. He also created black stars and some people see this as a parallel to the Hollywood studio system. For example Lorenzo Tucker was an important actor that appeared in a number of films in Micheaux’s later period of film making, between 1930 to 1948. Lorenzo Tucker was promoted as "The Black Valentino."

During the 1920s which was Oscar Micheaux's peak period, when most of his films were produced, the Hollywood industry was centered in California. Films were produced on sound stages. Where did Micheaux produce his films and under what circumstances?

Based on what we know, he produced his films in many places. He had an office in New York and he had an office in Chicago. He even had a film distribution and film exchange office in Roanoke, Virginia. So we think that he traveled a lot, particularly in New York, he would use some studios that were not shooting, like during the summertime to shoot some of his films. He also shot some of his films in the homes of friends...There is some evidence that he did shoot some film in Jacksonville, Florida. In Jacksonville, he encountered some resistance from whites as well as blacks and so he...decided to move back up toward the North. So we believe that he was traveling all the time and shooting in a lot of different settings.

Quite incredible. Now, recently Within Our Gates (1919) and Symbol of the Unconquered(1920) were discovered in European Archives...

Yes.

How did they get there?

Now that's a question that's still open for debate, but what we do know is that with many of his earlier films, Micheaux was seeking European distribution. The fact that he was attempting to distribute his films to European audiences was not exactly a new phenomena, because one of the first black film makers, William Foster out of Chicago, even commented on the appeal for movies that featured African American actors on the screen was actually quite wide in Europe and he encouraged other black film makers to get into the business because he knew that there would be a market...so maybe Oscar Micheaux was emulating what William Foster articulated or attempted to establish. There was also some suggestion that Micheaux might have had a film office in London but that has not been confirmed...There were also reports in African American press that Micheaux had left the country and gone to Europe to seek the world wide distribution of his films. My guess is that’s probably how some of those films got there. Within Our Gates was found in Madrid, Spain and Symbol of the Unconquered was found in Belgium, in a Belgium film archive.

The Micheaux mystery just gets greater!

And it will continue as more and more of his films surface.

Within Our Gates is interesting because it's not so much a "genre" film as it is a "message" film. It's been written that for Oscar Micheaux, the message was as important as the story. What kinds of messages did he send, what did he believe, what did his films say?

Within Our Gates was certainly a political statement denouncing lynching. With a film like Symbol of the Unconquered, he intended to expose the intimidation techniques of the Ku Klux Klan, but he also adds an interesting twist. When featuring the Klan on the screen dressed in their robes, one of the Klansmen unveils, and that person is not white--he’s black. So Micheaux was forcing audiences to come to terms with some of these idiosyncrasies and paradoxes and conflicting positions. Other things he addressed in his films; he forced African Americans to address interracial relationships. He exposed interracial prejudice. He certainly wanted to always expose the social ills and vices that he felt interfered with ability of African Americans to elevate themselves: gambling, prostitution, drinking, etc.

How did people react to this?

In many instances black reactions were mixed although they did support Micheaux films. Often times he received mixed reactions and we have evidence, because of reviews received in African American press. Toward the end of his career, African American audiences began to tire of Micheaux's outdated themes and some of them even accused him of promoting bourgeoisie lifestyles. They became tired of seeing Micheaux create black millionaires on the screen because there were very few millionaires in the African American population.

The conversion to sound was disastrous for the race films.

Yes. The conversion to sound, you want to say that it occurred in 1927. One year later in 1928, Micheaux's company is bankrupt. He does, however, survive it, but he survives by relying on the financial support provided by whites. And because he does so, ultimately he begins to lose control over his films. And the films, particularly the films produced in the later stages of his career, seem that they would appeal to a wide variety of tastes. These are films that, at least in my opinion, are shallow in plot, narrow in focus and are generally designed to make money.

How would Micheaux have viewed Hollywood's "Race films" of the period, Hearts in Dixie and Hallelujah!, later on , Green Pastures.

I think that audiences in general welcomed these films because rarely did Hollywood attempt to address or treat African Americans as an entity on the screen, but I think that Micheaux understood and recognized that often times these representations that they provided were Hollywood-constructed. Not the representations that African Americans were allowed to construct of themselves.

Do you think Micheaux ever felt the temptation to go to Hollywood? Someone like Stepin Fetchit could straddle the fence, he could do a Hollywood film and then a race film.

It's hard to say. I think if he had the opportunity and if the racial climate had been good and had he had the license to do what he wanted to do, I think he might have. I don't think anybody would have turned that opportunity down, had the right circumstances presented themselves. But clearly he was a man not to be controlled, so (laughs) if he didn't have control over nearly every aspect of the film making, I don't think he would have been tempted or lured to Hollywood.

He really is the father of Independent cinema.

Yes.

Do you see a continuity between race films, Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, and current films that are aimed at African American audiences?

Yes I do. I see a very clear and direct connection, with respect to some of the themes conveyed, with respect to some of the obstacles that contemporary film makers have to face such as financing, such as distribution, such as promotion. One of the other interesting patterns that I have observed is that Micheaux deliberately tried to elevate and promote black leaders, so in many of his films you will see a picture on the wall of Fredrick Douglass or Booker T. Washington and even sometimes Abraham Lincoln because of what Lincoln symbolically represented to the African American population. And if we look at contemporary films among some of the more popular film makers, we will see them, again, celebrating African American leaders, such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and others.

If you were to tell someone why they should see an Oscar Micheaux film, or Oscar Micheaux films; what does he mean, why should we watch him?

I like to show these films in my class because most people aren't even aware that there were black silent films being made. Another important reason to see these films is that people need to see the alternative images that were being presented, that were being constructed as they compare to the Hollywood images.

Thank You, Dr. Regester. We've only covered a tip of the iceberg. Each answer gets more interesting and brings up more questions.

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