Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 49

Lynched, Assaulted,
and Intimidated:
Oscar Micheaux's Most
Controversial Films
Provoking controversy, particularly during a time when it was
unpopular to do so and when racial segregation dictated the social
climate, was a feat only a few dared. Yet one African-American
filmmaker managed to thrive either because of or in spite of the
controversial issues addressed in his films. He was Oscar Micheaux.
Micheaux managed to produce nearly fifty films between 1918 and
1948 in two periods of filmmaking. Micheaux's first period of
filmmaking, in which he produced fine quality films and received
favorable reviews from the African-American press, extends from
1918, when his first film was produced, to 1929, one year after his
film company filed for bankruptcy. His second period of filmmaking,
in which he produced fewer top-quality films and increased the
number of re-makes or re-releases of earlier works, extends from 1930,
when his film company was being reorganized, to 1948, when his last
film was produced.
Micheaux was a filmmaker who managed to capitalize on the
controversial issues his works placed in the foreground such as
passing, interracial relationships, intraracial prejudice, lynching,
incestuous relationships, hypocritical m inisters, and the
intimidation tactics of such antiblack groups as the Ku Klux Klan. By
portraying controversial issues he also created controversy, which in
part, along with his strategic promotion and distribution techniques,
has made him one of the leading filmmakers in black film history.
Micheaux's ability to create and capitalize on controversy is what
distinguished him from his contemporaries and allowed him to
survive three decades of filmnnaking. Therefore, the focus of this
examination is his most controversial films.
In 1918, Micheaux produced his first film. The Homesteader,
based on his autobiographical novel of the same title; it had taken
him more than six years to write and nine months to adapt to the
screen. The film featured Evelyn Freer, a black actress who apjjeared