After a World War, a flu pandemic, and a series of race riots in the United States... Oscar Micheaux’s independently produced Within Our Gates premiered in 1920. Known for being the oldest surviving film from an African-American director, it is also seen as a response to the racial climate in America at the time, as well as D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). We discuss all these topics, as well as early silent cinema.
