A short film set in Los Angeles during the Reconstruction period, chronicle the life of the first black producer of silent films that starred African Americans in leading roles, decides to take matters into his own hands when he is denied a distribution deal from Lincoln Motion Picture Company.
The writer & director is Jamie J.D. Walker
Won the Black Reel Award in 2018 for the film (IMDB.com)
Micheaux posthumously had his star nomination an ceremony on February 13, 1987. It is located on 6721 Hollywood Blvd. (https://walkoffame.com/)
On June 22th, 2010 The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in honor of the filmmaker. It is the 33rd stamp in The Black Heritage series and the postage was designed by Gary Kelley, who modeled the artwork to one of the few surviving pictures of Micheaux ( Hurst, 2010).
Director and writer Tyler Perry attributes his position in the film industry to the films of Oscar Micheaux. being that Micheaux is his filming role model, Perry expressed his desire to create and star in a biopic based on Micheaux's life. It will be based on the 2007 biography “Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker” written by film historian Patrick McGilligan. He plans on working with HBO to produce the film. As of now, there is no official date of production (Tyler Perry to Star as Oscar Micheaux in HBO Biopic, n.d.).
"Our lives are parallel in so many ways — the way he wrote his books, told his stories, carried his own films to different theaters, and just his tenacity and his believing and investing in himself,” Perry explains. “So it means a great deal to be able to stand in those shoes. I’m looking forward to it (Variety).”
Since 2018 there has been a Micheaux film festival in LA. It awards minority and BIPOC communities for their films and filming techniques and genre It gives participants a chance to compete and share their films and They have screenings of the films too. The goals of the creators of the festival are to provide Discovery > Celebrity, Lead with help, Elevate with value, and close the knowledge gap between indie and industry.
Oscar Micheaux created the blueprint for black filmmakers of today. Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, and Julie Dash are black filmmakers who, similar to Michaux, had their films/ ideas initially rejected from the mainstream Hollywood. They would take the independent route to produce their films which would eventually lead to notable mainstream success. Micheaux pathed the way for black filmmakers and independent filmmakers today.
Spike Lee (https://www.nme.com/features/spike-lee-movies-10-best-2676242)
Julie Dash (https://www.blackwomendirectors.co/julie-dash)
Tyler Perry (https://tylerperry.com/)
G.R. Little Library
Elizabeth City State University
