Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was an American author, film director and independent producer.
Biography
As an independent filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux wrote, directed, and produced 26 silent features and 18 talkies, many financed and distributed through his own company, Micheaux Pictures Corporation.
Micheaux's first film, The Homesteader, was released in 1919 and was adapted from his novel of the same name. It was the first film to include an all-black cast. His other most notable works include Within Our Gates, The Hypocrite, Body and Soul, When Men Betray, and The Wages of Sin, all silent films, and The Exile, Underworld, Birthright, and The Betrayal, all sound films.
Micheaux quested to create films that offered bracing and aspirational stories for black audiences, with characters that were more admirable and human than the degrading caricatures and stereotypes found in amusements that catered to white audiences.
In 1921, Micheaux released Trust in the Law! a biographical drama about the legendary Oklahoma lawman Bass Reeves. The film had a limited release, and because it was released in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Black Wall Street massacre, the film never had a wide national release and was thought to have been lost. It went unseen for several years until 1955 at Dreamland in the Park's annual film festival honoring Micheaux's work. In 2019, the film was rediscovered again and restored by the Greenwood Center for Cultural Heritage.
Trivia
- Oscar Micheaux considered to be the first professional African American filmmaker, a prominent producer of race films, and has been described as "the most successful African American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century".
