African American pioneers are subjects of screenings at UCLA

[Blue_Tires]

Oscar Micheaux was not only the first African American to make a feature film -- 1919's silent "The Homesteader" -- he was also the first to make a sound feature film -- 1931's "The Exile." But whether the film had subtitles or spoken words, Micheaux always had bigger things in mind.

"He was very much a moralist," Jan-Christopher Horak, head of UCLA Film and Television Archive, says of the pioneering director. "He certainly had some unique ideas about uplifting the race. For the black middle class at that time period that was the goal -- uplifting the race, getting them more political and social power."

Contemporary black filmmakers have been very vocal in their admiration for Micheaux and his legacy. Spike Lee once said, "Oscar Micheaux has been my idol. He inspired me to do my first film."

Micheaux's work is being explored by the archive in its new program, "African American Film Pioneers," which opens today at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater.

Besides Micheaux, the program shines the spotlight on two other "race" film pioneers, writer/director/actor Spencer Williams, best known as one of the stars of "The Amos 'N Andy" TV series, as well as singer/actor Herb Jeffries, who made history seven decades ago as the first singing cowboy hero in all-black westerns.

The Chicago-based Micheaux began his film career quite literally going door-to -door in Sioux City, Iowa, where he had once lived, to ask for funding from farmers.

"Once he had the film finished, he literally would put it in the trunk of the car and travel around to where there were African American theaters," Horak says. "Then he would talk to black dignitaries and say, 'I will make a film with your daughter in it if you give me so much money.' "
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-pioneers11-2009sep11,0,5297053.story