Within Our Gates (1920)

Directed by

Oscar Micheaux

Genre

drama film, silent film, race film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 19m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 107 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Black woman travels north to raise money for a rural school for poor Black children in the South. Her romance with a Black doctor uncovers her family's past and the violent racial realities of white supremacy.

tensemelancholicgrittysoberingdramatichistoricalurgentunsettling

What happens

Within Our Gates is a 1920 American silent race drama film produced, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux. The film portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of blacks to cities of the North and Midwest, and the emergence of the "New Negro". The plot features an African-American woman who goes North in an effort to raise money for a rural school in the Deep South for poor Black children. Her romance with a Black doctor eventually leads to revelations about her family's past and her own mixed-race, European ancestry. The film portrays racial violence under white supremacy, and the lynching of black people. It is the oldest known surviving film by an African-American director and has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by a Black director. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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