Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking

This 80-minute documentary shines the spotlight on one of the single most important creators in the history of Black cinema. Hardly anybody my age (or any age for that matter) knows of Oscar Micheaux, or the obstacles he overcame to make the films he did.

This documentary uses film footage, animation, interviews, and on-location footage to retrace the steps of the well-traveled Micheaux and the result is an exemplary introduction to the filmmaker and the insane world he captured through his lens.

Oscar Micheaux left a tangible impact on the world of filmmaking, and I have no doubt his influence and legacy will only strengthen as more of his work is discovered and shown to a world that desperately needs his insight. This documentary is an excellent start.

"Oscar Micheaux is the most important black filmmaker who ever lived. Period." -- TCM host Jacqueline Stewart

For anyone new to Oscar Micheaux, his life or his films, this would be a great place to start. This documentary gives a reasonably good introduction to the context of Micheaux's life, what he was trying to do in his films, and why he was (and still is) so important to black people. There are a few interviewees who seem less than necessary, but many others who offer insightful, meaningful commentary, including Jacqueline Stewart, Michelle Prettyman, Amma Asante, Nicole London, Kevin Wilmott, Richard Pena, John Singleton, and Patrick McGilligan.

Several aspects of Micheaux's fascinating life are presented not only as telling his story, but also connecting them to his views and filmmaking. Growing up farming, leading to his rugged individualism and work ethic. Working on a railroad as a Pullman porter, exposing him to different ideas and books, making him more worldly, but also in seeing affluent white people, and believing that black people could live that way. Becoming a homesteader and being the only black person in his community, and probably carrying on an illegal relationship with a white woman. Going door to door to sell his books, a prelude to literally carrying his films from city to city and organizing a community of theaters on his own in lieu of conventional distribution. Seriously, this man had perseverance. As Micheaux included aspects of his life in his books and some of his films, we see clips that fit the story line well.

The documentary is clearly a long overdue celebration of an important pioneer, with its title being a reference to the fact that Metropolis, IL chose to honor the fictional Superman character with a giant statue instead of its native son, a real life hero. In his best moment here, Chuck D called that out well. However, despite all the acclaim, refreshingly, those interviewed offer criticism to Micheaux as well, starting with his difficult transition from silent to sound films, which render some of the latter less than enjoyable. Stewart also points out that his "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" messaging sometimes lacked the nuance of broader systems of white oppression, which made him appear a bit retrograde by the time the Civil Rights movement was in full swing and he was being rediscovered.

Some of the things that rankled contemporaries of Micheaux are confronted here as well. As Richard Pena pointed out, "Micheaux was never afraid to sort of, what could you say? As one newspaper accused him, 'wash the dirty linen of the community in public.'" The example of black preachers preying on their own people ala modern day televangelists is shown as a theme in his work, but the documentary probably could have gone deeper by providing other examples, such as the stereotypical dialog he would sometimes employ, and the issues around that. Micheaux would say that "Truth was the predominant characteristic" he strove for, and I would have loved to hear his own comments quoted here.

Similarly, at one point Stewart makes this observation, and I wish it had been expanded on further with examples and details: "He felt that the ways in which was being censored, these were not just affronts to his artistic vision, but they were politically motivated. These were attempts to try to keep black people from really feeling and seeing the weight of the political messages that he was including in his films. And he was resisting that over and over and over again."

With that said, as introductory as this is, it's a solid documentary about a filmmaker who deserves more recognition. Reading even the Wikipedia summaries for Micheaux's films can be quite depressing, they are so scant and poorly written. Micheaux put a mirror up to the real history of America, rebuking D. W. Griffith at a time the nation was enthralled with Birth of a Nation, as well as the ugly truths of racism and segregation, which is captured reasonably well here. Just as importantly, as Kevin Wilmott pointed out, "He knew that hunger for telling the real black experience," and we get a taste for the importance of middle-class representation, of the feminism in his women characters, and cultural aspects during the Harlem Renaissance which we would see in his song and dance interludes, among other things. The documentary is made more accessible to younger people via simple animations and its soundtrack, something I thought was a positive as well.

This film does what all good documentaries do, namely make you interested enough in the subject so that you want to go off and do some research of your own. In this case, that means watching the guy's movies, especially the silent ones where the actors seem less stiff and wooden than in the talkies which are plagued, like many early sound films, by too loud and declamatory readings of dialogue.

My only criticism, and it is a fairly major one, is that there is alarmingly little about Micheaux's personal life or personality beyond the fact that he was persistent, energetic and embittered in his last years. Why did he become so curdled? What kind of a husband was he? Why and how did he get the movie bug? Who were his favorite film makers? Who were his friends? Enemies? What were his political views, if any? The documentary is so focused on the subject's historical and societal importance that it loses sight of the man. I noticed this, as well, in docs on Paul Robeson, at least the ones TCM shows. I did not notice this absence of the personal in docs about white film makers of the period, like Chaplin or Griffith. This bothers me. Give it a B.

PS...Speaking of Robeson it was interesting to note that the only time he played an out and out villain on screen it was in Micheaux's "Body And Soul".

PSS...Love the title with it's not so subtle jab at the racism and provincialism of Metropolis, Ill.

Oscar micheaux (born 1884) was a black author and director. Working various jobs until about 1911, he was frustrated, and wanted to be his own boss. Educating himself, he was friends with booker washington! Bad luck at farming in south dakota, and bad luck with women, he needed to try something else. Micheaux writes several books, some anonymously. And later, he made some of his own books into film. Beginning with the silent films, later, talkies. Sadly, some of his films were banned in certain theaters, and many were lost completely. In those days, no-one expected that people would want to see films again later in life. Really interesting guy! He must have been good.. there are statues and postal stamps commemorating micheaux and his work. More details on the life of micheaux at wikipedia dot org. Written and directed by francesco zippel. Really interesting stuff!