Within Our Gates (1920)

Watching Silent Films

Jilted by her fiance, Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) returns down south to her roots, and takes a job teaching at the Piney Woods school for black children. With the school facing bankruptcy, Sylvia journeys north to Boston to try to raise funds. After much hardship, she secures the finances from a wealthy philanthropist and returns home in triumph to her beloved school. At the moment of her greatest joy a shadowy figure emerges to blackmail Sylvia. She is forced to either flee or have her tragic past revealed.

Within Our Gates is the earliest surviving feature by legendary pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. Created as a response to D.W. Griffith's The Birth Of A Nation which depicted southern whites in need of the KKK to protect them, Micheaux shows the reality of Dixie racism in 1920, where a black man could be lynched for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. His bold feature length productions which asserted an educated black man's point of view and featured black stars and all black casts, continued for three decades and included dramas, comedies, westerns and musicals.

In response to current events over the murder of George Floyd, our team recording the Watching Silent Films podcast touched upon this 100 year old film by African American director Oscar Micheaux. From 1920-2020 and discussing our thoughts outside of the published broadcast, we not only see black voices being smothered out over these years, we find that "minority" directors like Micheaux are few and hard to come by.

We find that by talking about these silent films might promote inclusivity to the directors, actors, and crew which might otherwise be snuffed out due to ignorance and neglect.

References mentioned in this Podcast -->

https://twitter.com/MoviesSilently/status/1267966101737967617?fbclid=IwAR1O8rngBXNUeoLKS56lIt8AnHKe0qOJIRN4SqWIw9CdE-NV5N9tw4cxWr0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_racial_violence_in_the_United_States

https://youtu.be/Wf4cea5oObY

Instagram: @sonyareneetaylor: "Why Talking to Your White Family About Black People is the Wrong Approach."
Hosted by Yifeng, Lily and Bob.

Recorded 6/9/20