[PAST EVENT] Black Movie History, A Community Responds

February 14, 2016
1:30pm
Location
Location not specified
This special program includes the first feature-length film directed by an African American. Made in 1919, Oscar Micheaux's "Within Our Gates" is a searing indictment of racism and a celebration of individual black courage and interracial cooperation.

From the twenty-first century, come two short independent films dedicated to deepening screen portrayals of African Americans: "The Gilded Six Bits" beautifully adapts Zora Neale Hurston's classic 1933 short story of love and forgiveness (starring Chad Coleman of "The Walking Dead" and Wendell Pierce of "The Wire," "Selma," "Treme"). Our Nation tells the story of Norfolk, VA's 1915 protests against the racist epic film "The Birth of a Nation" through the eyes of a young Black boy who loves the movies (starring Marsha Stephanie Blake of "Orange is the New Black").

The makers of "The Gilded Six Bits" and "Our Nation," along with Williamsburg's own Bobby Braxton, will join us for a post-screening discussion of the movies and movie-going in relation to America's history of race and racism.