The Complete Oscar Micheaux: Birthright (1938)
Director: Oscar Micheaux Run Time: 120 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1938
Starring: Allen Lee, Columbus Jackson, Herbert E. Jelley, Laura Bowman, Tom Dillon
Country: United States
Language: English
The Complete Oscar Micheaux, presented from Thursday, September 19—Saturday, September 28, 2024. The program concludes with a limited engagement of the 2021 documentary Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking on Sunday, September 29.
About the film:
Previously screened at the Film Center as a part of Pioneers of African American Cinema.
An idealistic young man attempts to establish a school in a rural location, but encounters opposition from both the black and white communities. Micheaux himself was a former homesteader, and strongly believed that African Americans should establish rural communities rather than follow the urban migration. But it’s hard to resist the allure of the city when Micheaux allows energetic singers and dancers to take the nightclub stage for extended musical numbers.
“I have always tried to make my photoplays present the truth…It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures, in light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights.”
The restoration of Birthright (1938) was derived from the only known surviving 35mm print, which is missing the first two of its nine reels – approximately twenty minutes of material. A description of the missing scenes has been compiled from a dialogue script submitted to the New York Censor Board on May 25, 1938, now preserved in the Motion Picture Scripts Collection of the New York State Archives. Birthright (1938) is a remake of Micheaux’s 1924 film of the same title. The earlier version is entirely lost.
Mastered in HD from 35mm film elements preserved by The Library of Congress. Digital reconstruction by Bret Wood. This digital restoration was made possible through the generous support of Matthew and Natalie Bernstein.
About the filmmaker:
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was an author, film writer and director, and independent producer of more than 44 silent films and sound films from 1919—1948. Micheaux was the first African American filmmaker to produce a full feature-length film and is regarded as a prominent producer of race films, and the most successful African American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. Micheaux’s work is not only a milestone in African American cinema, but an incredible insight into American history regarding race in society.
Born in 1884 to enslaved parents, Micheaux first left home to work for the railroads in Chicago. He had his sight set higher as a writer and a determined creative. He wrote a series of novels, including his self-published The Homesteader. Not only was Micheaux a pioneer in African American cinema, but also in independent publishing and filmmaking. After turning down offers to produce his novel into a film, he later found his own path to producing the 1919 film. Micheaux serves as a symbol of triumphing over the circumstances at hand to bring his vision to reality. The groundbreaking auteur’s features include The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Body and Soul (1925), Within Our Gates (1920) and Birthright (1938).
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