Evento

WITHIN OUR GATES @ 2016 St. Louis International Film Festival

As part of our 25th-anniversary celebration, SLIFF reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening Within Our Gates, writer-director Oscar Micheauxs impassioned response to D.W. Griffiths Birth of a Nation. The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. Within Our Gates, one of the oldest surviving race films, was thought lost until a print was discovered in Spain in 1990 and restored by the Library of Congress in 1992. This screening features a new restoration that offers an even more faithful approximation of the film as originally released. SLIFF has again invited Cairo, Ill.s Stace England & the Salt Kings to play the original score the group created for our 2009 presentation. The band will also offer a few selections from its album The Amazing Oscar Micheaux, whose songs were inspired by the filmmakers life and work.