Midnight Ramble

Series: American Experience Series

Duration: 55

Year Published: 1994

Creator: Pamela A. Thomas/Bestor Cram

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Description: Traces the development and gradual decline in America of "race movies," --films which featured all black casts--focusing on the career of Oscar Micheaux, who directed over forty of these productions. Examines the role of race movies in the African-American culture from the turn of the century through the 1940's and discusses their role as an answer to the demeaning stereotypes emerging from mainstream studios. Explains that the high production costs of sound films and the stockmarket crash of 1929 caused many African-American-owned companies to close in the late twenties and thirties. Traces the last few race movies produced in the 1930s and 1940s, at the same time that Hollywood began to make a few of its own race movies, which revived old stereotypes.