Review of Within Our Gates (1920) by Bob V — 29 Jan 2011

Another important milestone of Cinema, "Within Our Gates" is the earliest remaining work by an African American director, with a mainly African American cast. Though only the second of Micheaux' very numerous productions, many feel this is also his best, or most poignant and important work.

Made as a reaction in part to D.W. Griffith's painfully racist masterpiece "Birth of a Nation" and in part as a reaction to the Chicago Race Riots, the film follows a black heroine on her travails. Mirroring the North-South movements of Griffith's film, and brilliantly juxtaposing 'white urban legends' about African Americans with explicit scenes of lynchings and rapes, it was so controversial and so heavily censored that most of it was long thought lost, until an almost complete Spanish version was found and used to restore the film as closely as it was (probably) intended to be seen.

Micheaux was clearly a gifted film maker, and his use of juxtaposition & mirroring is excellent. He also doesn't fall for the easy message of "whites are to blame" (as "Birth of a Nation" can be said to have done, to the blacks), but he indites less savoury members of his own race as well. Hereby he presents a film that is more balanced, while still being a deft answer to the bigotry of "Birth" and ultimately more 'likeable'.