Within Our Gates
Pioneers of African-American Cinema • 1h 13m
Oscar Micheaux • United States • 1920
An unflinching portrayal of racial violence.
During her attempts to secure funding for an impoverished school serving the black community, an idealistic young teacher confronts her traumatic past, including the lynching of her parents by a white mob. Still startling for Micheaux's unflinching portrayal of racial violence and fearlessness in depicting taboo subject matter, WITHIN OUR GATES remains as powerful as it was a century ago.
Up Next in Pioneers of African-American Cinema
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Verdict Not Guilty
Eloyce Gist, James Gist • United States • 1933
A surreal filmed pageant.
In this surreal filmed pageant—presided over by a horrific skull-faced “Jailer” in a nun’s habit—a woman faces the throne of judgment and must account her iniquities to earn God’s mercy.
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Zora Neale Hurston's Fieldwork Footage
Zora Neale Hurston • United States • 1928
A glimpse of African-American life at a time few documented it.
Zora Neale Hurston's ethnographic films, part of her effort to collect folklore of black communities in the rural south, provide a rare glimpse of African-American life in central and south...
