Two Roanoke institutions will pay tribute next month to a pioneering filmmaker who for three years operated out of the historic Gainsboro neighborhood – and who left a lasting mark on movies.
The Grandin Theatre and Harrison Museum of African American Culture are showcasing Oscar Micheaux by showing seven of his films and a documentary about him at events beginning in late January and extending through February.
Oscar Micheaux operated out of Roanoke from 1923 to 1925, living and working on Henry Street in the historic Gainsboro neighborhood. At the time, Gainsboro was an active participant in the global Harlem Renaissance, and Micheaux played a crucial part in that, producing eight films for Black audiences at a time when they were prohibited from going to see more mainstream fare at white theaters.
"During that time, he was just an entrepreneur filmmaker that was making films. But now, he's recognized around the world for his films," says Jordan Bell, a Gainsboro historian.
Over his career, Micheaux produced more than 40 films, which took on topics like segregation, inter-racial romance and civic unrest. He launched the career of famed actor Paul Robeson. One of his Roanoke films, "The House Behind the Cedars," even featured a cameo by a young Oliver White Hill Sr., who would go on to become a civil rights lawyer who helped integrate public schools. E.B. Smith is executive director of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture. He says Micheaux set a template for independent filmmaking that's inspired generations of filmmakers, from Spike Lee to Ryan Coogler.
"He really made sure that he had creative control of his product. and he was making movies that were they controlled through more mainstream channels, might not have had the impact that they did," Smith says. "He was chronicling migration and patterns of movement for Black life that a lot of people weren't.
"He was also showing the world a side of African American life that was not widely explored or accepted, especially within the arts. his films were not the sort of traditionally digested vaudeville exports that a lot of black characters in cinema were at the time. He was telling very serious stories about whole people, and that was revolutionary for the '20s and '30s," Smith says.
The celebration of Micheaux kicks off with a red-carpet gala for "Within Our Gates." That 1920 silent film is considered Micheaux's response to D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation," an early blockbuster that glorified racism, lynching and the Ku Klux Klan.
The Grandin and Harrison Museum will screen six more Micheaux films in February as part of their Black History Month celebrations.
