starring Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements,
written, directed, and produced by Oscar Micheaux
74 minutes
Sylvia (Evelyn Preer), a young southern school teacher of color, seeks to escape her horrific past. Her life, since losing her parents to a lynching, has gotten better but she is still plagued by ne'er do wells from the Black community, and racism from Whites.
Thoughts
This is the earliest film made by an African-American director that has survived, mostly intact. There is one scene that is missing. The film was thought to be lost until a copy was found in Spain. The intertext cards had to be translated back into English.
The music in the version that I watched was by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky). The music was varied and was added, according to my research, in 2016.
This is a tough movie to describe. It is also very episodic. A good chunk of it is told in flashback. The story of Evelyn's past is the last 25 to 30 minutes of the movie. It has a happy ending but it is quite a trip getting there.
Evelyn is a woman who has been traumatized and is trying to be a good person, trying to find her way in the world, trying to make it a better place. My read of the ending is that Micheaux is telling the viewer not to allow oneself to be overcome by darkness and to learn to move towards the light.
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