The Exile
Pioneers of African-American Cinema • 1h 18m
Oscar Micheaux • United States • 1931
The earliest surviving sound film by an African-American.
The immediate historical significance of THE EXILE is that it is the earliest surviving sound feature by an African-American filmmaker. Watching it, one immediately detects a change in Oscar Micheaux’s visual style, indulging in lengthy dialogue exchanges with few cuts and minimal camera movement. Much of Hollywood went through this same stylistic regression during the Dawn of Sound, until they wrestled themselves free of the restrictive technology of filming with synchronized audio. In addition to The Conquest the film borrows elements from Micheaux’s 1917 novel The Homesteader.
Up Next in Pioneers of African-American Cinema
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The Flying Ace
Richard E. Norman • United States • 1926
A rural crime drama about rival aviators.
A rural crime drama revolving around a pair of rival aviators, THE FLYING ACE illuminates the fact that many films made for African-American audiences were less concerned with race than with making popular entert...
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The Girl from Chicago
Oscar Micheaux • United States • 1932
Exploring the cultural rift between the urban and the rural.
A remake of Oscar Micheaux’s now-lost 1926 silent film The Spider’s Web THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO is another film that explores the cultural rift between the urban and the rural, set in both Harlem an...
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The Scar of Shame
Frank Peregini • United States • 1929
A woman is rescued from her abusive father by a composer.
When a young woman escapes from her abusive father, she is rescued by an aspiring composer, but encounters opposition from his class-conscious mother. This edition of THE SCAR OF SHAME includes four...