The earliest surviving feature film from a Black director, Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates is an inventive portrait of early 20th century Black American life. This silent film follows Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer), a Black school teacher, who travels to Boston from Mississippi on a fundraising trip for an all-Black school on the brink of closure. A forefather of Black independent cinema, Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates established many of the themes of his cinematic oeuvre such as the omnipresence of anti-Black violence and the hope for racial uplift.
This screening will be preceded by a poetry performance from George Norman, co-founder of FREEAIR Books.