"He didn't just make movies, he sparked a revolution." Kino Lorber is launching a classic film tour soon to celebrate a pioneering American filmmaker named Oscar Micheaux. He is known as "the country's first major Black filmmaker," who made many films from the 1920s onward that redefined what cinema could be and who it was for. His very first film was The Homesteader in 1919, however it is now considered lost. Kino Lorber will be showing 17 films from Micheaux's filmography, provided by the Library of Congress as 4K restorations & rare discoveries. Micheaux directed & produced more than 40 films from 1919-1948, shifting from silent to talkies, and depicting early such complex and taboo subjects as religious hypocrisy, interracial marriage, police violence, and lynching, often with all-Black casts and producers. This touring "festival" features 17 films that will play on the big screen at art house cinemas. Featuring Within Our Gates (1920), Micheaux’s earliest surviving feature,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
105 years ago this year, the birth of Black independent cinema commenced when Oscar Micheaux released his silent feature The Homesteader. While that 1919 film, along with most of the pioneering director’s silent work, has been lost, 17 of Micheaux’s films, including seven new restorations, are now coming to theaters with Kino Lorber’s new retrospective Oscar Micheaux and the Birth of Black Independent Cinema. Presented in partnership with the Library of Congress, the retrospective kicks off on May 3 at Film Forum before touring to other cities nationwide, and we’re pleased to exclusively launch the trailer. Kino Lorber will also release the Micheaux collection on home video later this year.
One of the earliest filmmakers to depict the Black American experience with nuance and depth, Oscar Micheaux directed more than 40 films between 1919 and 1948, working in both the silent and talkie era, exploring a range of complex, often taboo subjects that included religious hypocrisy,...
One of the earliest filmmakers to depict the Black American experience with nuance and depth, Oscar Micheaux directed more than 40 films between 1919 and 1948, working in both the silent and talkie era, exploring a range of complex, often taboo subjects that included religious hypocrisy,...
- 4/24/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
The glamour of Old Hollywood is timeless, but the holiday season is a great time to purchase one of these classic film-themed gifts. In addition to curating broadcast lineups of the greatest films of all time (from one of the largest film libraries in the world), Turner Classic Movies has also curated a wide variety of gifts for the classic film fan in your life — or yourself, if that’s you. And if you subscribe to Hulu Live or Sling TV, you can stream all the TCM movies your heart desires. If you’re not subscribed, Hulu Live costs just $64.99 a month after a free seven-day trial. That means you can officially cut...
The glamour of Old Hollywood is timeless, but the holiday season is a great time to purchase one of these classic film-themed gifts. In addition to curating broadcast lineups of the greatest films of all time (from one of the largest film libraries in the world), Turner Classic Movies has also curated a wide variety of gifts for the classic film fan in your life — or yourself, if that’s you. And if you subscribe to Hulu Live or Sling TV, you can stream all the TCM movies your heart desires. If you’re not subscribed, Hulu Live costs just $64.99 a month after a free seven-day trial. That means you can officially cut...
- 11/2/2021
- by Jean Bentley and Latifah Muhammad
- Indiewire
Motion Picture Exchange AFM Title
Exclusive: Motion Picture Exchange has acquired global sales rights to heist film Take the Night and will launch sales at the upcoming virtual American Film Market. Written and directed by Seth McTigue, starring are Sam Li, Roy Huang (The Offer), Grace Serrano (Thou Shalt Not Kill) and Brennan Keel Cook (Encounter). Pic is produced by Julien P. Bourgon, Franco Sama and Mark Heidelberger. In the film, a bitter heir organizes a kidnapping of his younger brother on his birthday unaware that the criminals he hired to do the job are more cunning than he imagined. “We are proud to be partnering with Seth on his feature directorial debut,” said Ryan Bury, SVP of Acquisitions and Sales for Mpx. “He has created a finely tuned, high octane film with an in-depth story and lots of twists and turns. He’s a talented young filmmaker that is one to watch.
Exclusive: Motion Picture Exchange has acquired global sales rights to heist film Take the Night and will launch sales at the upcoming virtual American Film Market. Written and directed by Seth McTigue, starring are Sam Li, Roy Huang (The Offer), Grace Serrano (Thou Shalt Not Kill) and Brennan Keel Cook (Encounter). Pic is produced by Julien P. Bourgon, Franco Sama and Mark Heidelberger. In the film, a bitter heir organizes a kidnapping of his younger brother on his birthday unaware that the criminals he hired to do the job are more cunning than he imagined. “We are proud to be partnering with Seth on his feature directorial debut,” said Ryan Bury, SVP of Acquisitions and Sales for Mpx. “He has created a finely tuned, high octane film with an in-depth story and lots of twists and turns. He’s a talented young filmmaker that is one to watch.
- 10/26/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
It might be a Netflix world, as the 800-pound gorilla in the space, but there are other competitive streaming platforms offering home viewing options that are more bountiful than ever before. Amazon Prime is one of them, which, like Netflix, offers a library of films, old and new, that have become increasingly diverse over the years, in an effort to meet demand. However, it still can be a difficult task for any discerning viewer looking specifically for Black films to sift through the deluge.
As an extension of IndieWire’s monthly list of the best new films on Netflix, this list will be updated periodically as new titles become available, and old titles will be replaced.
From pioneer Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), the earliest surviving feature film by an African American filmmaker, to Melvin Van Peebles’ only studio picture, a Kafkaesque comedy titled “Watermelon Man,” the first blaxploitation parody,...
As an extension of IndieWire’s monthly list of the best new films on Netflix, this list will be updated periodically as new titles become available, and old titles will be replaced.
From pioneer Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), the earliest surviving feature film by an African American filmmaker, to Melvin Van Peebles’ only studio picture, a Kafkaesque comedy titled “Watermelon Man,” the first blaxploitation parody,...
- 5/26/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
The New York Times put prestigious specialty home-video distributor The Criterion Collection under a microscope late last week, and the headline said it all: “How the Criterion Collection Crops Out African-American Directors.” The report looked at all 22 years and more than 1,000 titles in the Criterion’s revered selection of Blu-rays and DVDs of films, finding that only four African Americans are represented: Oscar Micheaux (“Body and Soul”); William Greaves; Charles Burnett (“To Sleep With Anger”); and Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing” and “Bamboozled”).
It’s a glaring omission for a company that prides itself on licensing and releasing what it describes as “important classic and contemporary films,” but also reflective of an industry-wide practice of shutting out Black filmmakers.
Despite America’s changing demographics, the industry’s most powerful leaders have been slow to respond to a demand for films that reflect cultural and racial shifts that have long been underway.
It’s a glaring omission for a company that prides itself on licensing and releasing what it describes as “important classic and contemporary films,” but also reflective of an industry-wide practice of shutting out Black filmmakers.
Despite America’s changing demographics, the industry’s most powerful leaders have been slow to respond to a demand for films that reflect cultural and racial shifts that have long been underway.
- 8/25/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates is showing June 17 - July 17, 2020.Oscar Micheaux has been hailed as many things: The first Black auteur, a modernist “Czar of Black Hollywood,” and a pioneering independent director whose distinctive style forged new ways of telling stories about the complexities of the Black experience. He was also—quite literally—a pioneer. Born in 1884 as the fifth child of former slaves, Micheaux moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he worked in stockyards and steel mills before setting up a series of small businesses. He lived an itinerant life as a Pullman porter, saving enough money to buy a plot of land in South Dakota. There he set up a thriving homestead, where he lived off the prairie land and wrote novels. Droughts and the break-up of his marriage brought an end to this chapter,...
- 6/17/2020
- MUBI
Coming to Film Forum in New York City is “Black Women,” a 70-film screening series that spotlights 81 years – 1920 to 2001 – of trailblazing African American actresses in American movies.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
- 1/17/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart has been announced as host of “Silent Sunday Nights,” the 25-year-old Turner Classic Movies (TCM) block that offers iconic movies from the silent era as well as forgotten gems and international classics. Stewart is a professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, specializing in the history of African American cinema from the silent era to the present. She is also a three-term appointee to the National Film Preservation Board (Nfpb), which advises the Librarian of Congress on policy, and is the Chair of the Nfpb Diversity Task Force working to ensure the films chosen for the National Film Registry reflect diversity and inclusion.
For Stewart, hosting TCM’s “Silent Sunday Nights” is an opportunity that meshes harmoniously with the kind of work she’s been doing throughout her career.
“It’s an incredible alignment of my expertise as a scholar across my career,...
For Stewart, hosting TCM’s “Silent Sunday Nights” is an opportunity that meshes harmoniously with the kind of work she’s been doing throughout her career.
“It’s an incredible alignment of my expertise as a scholar across my career,...
- 9/9/2019
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSofia Coppola is reuniting with her Lost in Translation star Bill Murray for a new film entitled On the Rocks, co-starring Rashida Jones.A remarkable online database cohering women film editors significant contributions to cinema has been launched. Women Film Editors is an essential addition to the online film world.Recommended VIEWINGA24's trailer for the U.S. release of Claire Denis' High Life is here and it does not disappoint. You can find our take on this dark sci-fi here.The late Hu Bo's magnificent An Elephant Sitting Still gets a beautiful, elegiac U.S. trailer in the event of an upcoming run at Film Society of Lincoln Center. On the other end of cinema's spectrum, here's the trailer for Dan Gilroy's Velvet Buzzsaw, starring a manic Jake Gyllenhaal as a exploitative art dealer.
- 1/16/2019
- MUBI
In 2015, Kino Lorber launched the successful crowdfunding campaign for “Pioneers of African-American Cinema,” a DVD box set that featured more than 20 feature-length and short films made by groundbreaking African American directors from 1915 to 1946.
The funds raised from the Kickstarter allowed the project to expand from a modest collection of films into a monumental five-disc collection, loaded with extras and an 80-page booklet. Now, the entire box set is available to stream on Netflix.
Read More: Kino Lorber Hires Nicholas Kemp as Director of Theatrical Marketing — Exclusive
Showcasing the works of Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, Richard E. Norman and many other legendary helmers, the streaming service includes films features like “Hell-Bound Train,” “Within Our Gates,” “Birthright,” “The Flying Ace” and many other titles. Some like “Hot Biskits” and “the Blood of Jesus” and “Verdict Not Guilty” and “Heaven-Bound Travelers” are also paired together.
“Pioneers of African-American Cinema” was a...
The funds raised from the Kickstarter allowed the project to expand from a modest collection of films into a monumental five-disc collection, loaded with extras and an 80-page booklet. Now, the entire box set is available to stream on Netflix.
Read More: Kino Lorber Hires Nicholas Kemp as Director of Theatrical Marketing — Exclusive
Showcasing the works of Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, Richard E. Norman and many other legendary helmers, the streaming service includes films features like “Hell-Bound Train,” “Within Our Gates,” “Birthright,” “The Flying Ace” and many other titles. Some like “Hot Biskits” and “the Blood of Jesus” and “Verdict Not Guilty” and “Heaven-Bound Travelers” are also paired together.
“Pioneers of African-American Cinema” was a...
- 2/8/2017
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
The 1920 silent film Within Our Gates screens as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The film will be accompanied by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Oscar Micheaux, writer-director of Within Our Gates. The screening is sponsored by Renee Hirshfield. Ticket information can be found Here
As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films,...
As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films,...
- 11/9/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The 1920 silent film Within Our Gates screens as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The film will be accompanied by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Oscar Micheaux, writer-director of Within Our Gates. The screening is sponsored by Renee Hirshfield. Ticket information can be found Here
As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films,...
As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films,...
- 10/24/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The schedule for the 25th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) has been announced and once again film goers will be offered the best in cutting edge features and shorts from around the globe. The festival takes place November 3-13, 2016.
Sliff kicks off on November 3 with the opening-night selection St. Louis Brews, the latest home-brewed documentary by local filmmaker Bill Streeter, director of Brick By Chance And Fortune: A St. Louis Story (read my interview with Bill Here)
According to Sliff, the festival will feature more than 125 filmmaking guests, including honorees: Actress Karen Allen (Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Animal House), director Charles Burnett (Killer Of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), winner of the Cinema St. Louis Lifetime Achievement Award; and director Steve James (Hoop Dreams).
Full information on Sliff films, including synopses, dates/time, and links for purchase of advance tickets is available on the Cinema St.
Sliff kicks off on November 3 with the opening-night selection St. Louis Brews, the latest home-brewed documentary by local filmmaker Bill Streeter, director of Brick By Chance And Fortune: A St. Louis Story (read my interview with Bill Here)
According to Sliff, the festival will feature more than 125 filmmaking guests, including honorees: Actress Karen Allen (Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Animal House), director Charles Burnett (Killer Of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), winner of the Cinema St. Louis Lifetime Achievement Award; and director Steve James (Hoop Dreams).
Full information on Sliff films, including synopses, dates/time, and links for purchase of advance tickets is available on the Cinema St.
- 10/14/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It's arrived -- thanks in part to a successful Kickstarter campaign, this nearly comprehensive compendium of American 'Race Films' is here in a deluxe Blu-ray presentation. Pioneers of African-American Cinema Blu-ray Kino Classics 1915-1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 952 min. / Street Date July 26, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 99.95 Directed by Richard Norman, Richard Maurice, Spencer Williams and Oscar Micheaux
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Black Cinema History? We didn't hear a peep about any such thing back in film school. Sometime in the 1980s PBS would broadcast a barely watchable (see sample just below) copy of a creaky silent 'race movie' about a 'backsliding' black man in trouble with the law, the Lord and his wife in that order. The cultural segregation has been almost complete. It wasn't until even later that I read articles about a long-extinct nationwide circuit of movie theaters catering to black audiences, wherever the populations were big enough to support the trade.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Black Cinema History? We didn't hear a peep about any such thing back in film school. Sometime in the 1980s PBS would broadcast a barely watchable (see sample just below) copy of a creaky silent 'race movie' about a 'backsliding' black man in trouble with the law, the Lord and his wife in that order. The cultural segregation has been almost complete. It wasn't until even later that I read articles about a long-extinct nationwide circuit of movie theaters catering to black audiences, wherever the populations were big enough to support the trade.
- 8/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s hard to consider the release of a piece of entertainment, specifically a DVD and Blu-ray box set, as a culturally significant moment, but then again there are few items quite like the newest release from the team at Kino Lorber.
After a refreshingly successful Kickstarter campaign, Kino Lorber has finally released their groundbreaking collection, Pioneers Of African American Cinema, and to call it one of the year’s best home video releases is to truly understate the sociological import carried within this release.
Silent era and early-talkie cinema, as seen by many a film aficionado, is a deeply problematic world. Primarily helmed by white men, films more than occasionally featured everything from frustratingly cartoonish caricatures of African-American characters (furthering stereotypes like the “Mamie”) to white actors donning black face (of which there is also a great deal within this set as well) in what is seen today as a disturbing bit of racism.
After a refreshingly successful Kickstarter campaign, Kino Lorber has finally released their groundbreaking collection, Pioneers Of African American Cinema, and to call it one of the year’s best home video releases is to truly understate the sociological import carried within this release.
Silent era and early-talkie cinema, as seen by many a film aficionado, is a deeply problematic world. Primarily helmed by white men, films more than occasionally featured everything from frustratingly cartoonish caricatures of African-American characters (furthering stereotypes like the “Mamie”) to white actors donning black face (of which there is also a great deal within this set as well) in what is seen today as a disturbing bit of racism.
- 7/28/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
On December 17, El Dia de St. Lazaro, something extraordinary happened! Equivalent to the “Fall of the Wall”, President Barak Obama simultaneously with Raul Castro of Cuba announced that diplomatic relations between our two countries was being restored; the last of the Cuban Five imprisoned for 15 years in the U.S. for spying (on Cuban terrorists based in Miami) would be returned to Cuba in exchange for Alan Gross (imprisoned for 5 years for bringing Cuba forbidden internet technology), and an unnamed CIA agent incarcerated for 20 years, along with other Cuban political prisoners; And that this would be the first step in finally normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S.A.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
- 12/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Screen Syndicate, a side project of Southern Illinois-based Americana band Stace England and the Salt Kings, explores the fascinating history of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and the exploitation films made by the company in the 1970s. The life of actress Roberta Collins — a Hollywood story of sadly unfulfilled promise — is the vehicle used to navigate the period. Collins lit up the screen in films like The Big Doll House, Women In Cages and Death Race 2000. But Collins was unable to break out of the B-movie grind, playing minor roles in increasingly poor productions before finally exiting the business. She died in obscurity in 2008. Screen Syndicate combines original songs, film clips, trailers, and other material into a unique live-music experience that pays tribute to Collins. The band has performed at numerous film festivals in the U.S. and Europe — appearing twice at Sliff — with shows about pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and Cairo,...
- 11/19/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Black filmmaking pioneer Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 film "Within Our Gates," was his second film from the over 40 films he made during his career and some consider it his best film. The film was shot in and around the Chicago area when his production company was based there, before he moved to New York (which remained the center for most of his film productions until his last film "The Betrayal" in 1948, which he returned to Chicago to make). And Micheaux made "Gates" not only as a response to D.W. Griffith’s "Birth of Nation," but also to the infamous Chicago race riots of 1919, known as the “Red Summer of 1919,” in which 23...
- 9/1/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
The first annual Within Our Gates Black Film Student Film Festival and Competition is set to take place at Columbia College Chicago on Tuesday May 7th Put together by the College’s Black Film Society and inspired by black filmmaking pioneer Oscar Micheaux (hence the name of the Festival the which comes from title of Micheaux’s 1920 anti- lynching film) the festival‘s goal is to “contribute stories and images of Black Life” and intends “to highlight the artistic achievements of Black Students in the art of narrative documentary and experimental films at Columbia College in Chicago.” Cash prizes will be awarded in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, Best...
- 5/3/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Oscar Micheaux's groundbreaking 1919 silent feature film, Within Our Gates, will have a rare screening in Chicago at the Music Box Theater, on Saturday Feb. 9 at 12 Noon. The film, which is being screened as part of the theater's regular Saturday Silent Cinema series, is the earliest known and complete black film made by an African-American director, and was originally made by Micheaux as a response to D.W. Criffith's 1915, still inflammatory, The Birth of a Nation. Basically telling the story of black schoolteacher who goes North ro raise funds for better schools in the segregated South, the film, which was made in and around Chicago right after...
- 1/28/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Starting this week during the spring quarter on every Tuesday until May 31st, the Doc Film Society at the University of Chicago will screen a black film series of mainly rarely seen Hollywood produced black films and independently made “race” movies of the 1940′s: White on Black: Hollywood and Black Cinema
Some of the films in the series will include Spencer Williams’ Go Down Death (1944), Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates(1920) and his gangtser film Underworld (1937) King Vidor’s MGM film (1929, one of the first sound films made) and Reet, Petite and Gone with the true innovator, and who many, perhaps rightly, claim was the real creator of “rock and roll”, Louis Jordan (1947)
And rumor has it that a certain annoying pest (better known as me) will host and introduce a few of the films in the series. All the films will start at 7Pm at Doc Films’ Max Palevsky...
Some of the films in the series will include Spencer Williams’ Go Down Death (1944), Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates(1920) and his gangtser film Underworld (1937) King Vidor’s MGM film (1929, one of the first sound films made) and Reet, Petite and Gone with the true innovator, and who many, perhaps rightly, claim was the real creator of “rock and roll”, Louis Jordan (1947)
And rumor has it that a certain annoying pest (better known as me) will host and introduce a few of the films in the series. All the films will start at 7Pm at Doc Films’ Max Palevsky...
- 3/31/2011
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
This weekend on Friday Nov. 12 and Saturday Nov.13, the Embarras Valley Film Festival taking place in Charleston Illinois, will have an Oscar Micheaux film series showing his films Within Our Gates and Body and Soul with Paul Robeson.
The screenings will be held on the Eastern Illinois University campus, the Tarble Fine Arts Center and the Charleston Carnegie Public Library along with several lectures about Micheaux’s films and their influences and impact on African-Amercian culture by prominent film scholars including Dann Gire who will introduce the screening of Body and Soul on Sat Nov. 13 with a original live score performed by Stacie England and the Salt Kings .
For more info go Here and Here.
The screenings will be held on the Eastern Illinois University campus, the Tarble Fine Arts Center and the Charleston Carnegie Public Library along with several lectures about Micheaux’s films and their influences and impact on African-Amercian culture by prominent film scholars including Dann Gire who will introduce the screening of Body and Soul on Sat Nov. 13 with a original live score performed by Stacie England and the Salt Kings .
For more info go Here and Here.
- 11/18/2010
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
The 18th Annual Whitaker Saint Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) will be held on November 12-22, 2009. The festival annually features the St. Louis premieres of more than 250 films from nearly 40 countries. Along with all the many great films from around the globe, there are several special events and screenings taking place as part of the festival that you’ll want to make sure and mark your calendars for.
An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig (2009) on Thursday, November 12, 7:00 pm – Tivoli Theatre The silent Within Our Gates – Screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Stace England and the Salt Kings. Micheaux biographer Patrick McGilligan will introduce the program and participate in a post-film discussion. – Friday, November 13 at 7:00 pm - St. Louis Art Museum Up In The Air Cocktail Party – Saturday, November 14, 4-6pm, Hilton at the Ballpark. Special-event ticket price of $50; limited number of tickets available only by phone through...
An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig (2009) on Thursday, November 12, 7:00 pm – Tivoli Theatre The silent Within Our Gates – Screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Stace England and the Salt Kings. Micheaux biographer Patrick McGilligan will introduce the program and participate in a post-film discussion. – Friday, November 13 at 7:00 pm - St. Louis Art Museum Up In The Air Cocktail Party – Saturday, November 14, 4-6pm, Hilton at the Ballpark. Special-event ticket price of $50; limited number of tickets available only by phone through...
- 11/11/2009
- by Travis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.