European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 5, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Imu it i Mutt. V a in Rye it a s  it to wha a restored Black silent film reaches video by the associated press i rape. N a Gritty portrayal of american race relations in the Early 1900s, a Black Southern schoolteacher journeys North in search of Money to keep her segregated school open and encounters a Lynching and an attempted interracial no this Isnit another made for television epic. Its the earliest surviving film by a Black american a Oscar Micheaux a Long lost within our Gates made in 1919. After remaining unseen for 75 years within our Gates is one of 10 Early silent films and 21 fragile animated cartoons meticulously restored and copied onto videotape by the smithsonian institution and the Library of Congress. Tom Cripps a noted historian of Black Cinema stumbled onto a Spanish language version of within our Gates while doing research on another topic in Spain said David Francis chief of the Library a motion picture broadcasting and recorded sound division. Cripps found it in the Spanish state Archive four years ago Francis said. A we done to really know How it got there but someone in Europe Felt it was important enough to place it in the Spanish Archive a he said. A Micheaux was working on his own under very difficult circumstances and he probably sold or distributed his movies whenever he got the Chance a after negotiations Between american film historians and Spanish officials the film was exchanged for a Spanish movie in the Library of Congress. Film historians suspect that within our Gates was Micheaux a answer to birth of a nation the 1915 movie that projected racism and Black stereotypes. Within our Gates stars Evelyn peer a Black state an undated photo from Oscar Mich Aux a within our Gates made by the Black american in 1919. And vaudeville actress. Micheaux makes a Brief Cameo appearance. Subtitles of the print found in Spain included Long explanations of american culture for the Benefit of Spanish audiences Francis said. The Library of Congress translated the subtitles and edited them Down to the Short English language sentences now seen in the restored copies. New piano scores composed by Philip Carli were added to the film. A most of the films in this period a the 1910s and the 1920s a were in private hands and came to us in the 1950s,�?� Francis said. Quot some of them were found in Peoples Homes up in the attic or underneath the bed  along with within our Gates in the smithsonian collection arc birth of a nation and such examples of gangster films As . Griffith a the narrow Road 1912 and Maurice Tourneur a alias Jimmy Valentine 1915. Twenty one Short animated cartoons featuring. George Harriman a a crazy Kat and 77?e Katz Anjam mar kids Are on one cassette that also includes fragments of Gertie on tour and the centaurs by win Sor Mckay. Each of the cartoons was made Between 1900 and 1921. Americans first female movie makers Are Ccle Bra cd on another cassette which includes How men propose 1913 and too Wise wives 1921 by Lois Weber. For More information Contact the smithsonian at 800 669-1559 or 64 depot Road Colchester or. 05446. Quot debating How much a movie is Black or White by William Grimes the new York times. Martin Scorsese once had the rights to make Schindler a list. But As an ital Ian american roman Catholic did he have the right that question and the premise behind it loomed Large in a panel discussion a whose Black Cinema is it anyway a held at new York University As part of a program on Black film at the Tisch school of the arts. The discussion was moderated by Kinshasa Holman Conwill the director of the studio museum in Harlem and the panellists were the filmmakers Spike Lee Jonathan Demme Bill Duke and Michael Roemer the writer Ishmael Reed the film critic Joel Siegel and the screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan. The name Steven Spielberg came up Early and often As a positive and negative example of the relationship Between ethnicity and certain kinds of subject matter. The color purple was held up at arms length and Spike Lee in his 1992 movie Malcolm x. Examined with contempt by most of the panellists. A the Way that was treated by Spielberg is the Best argument i know for african americans control of their projects a said Reed. Siegel argued that although filmmakers should be free to choose their subjects films like Malcolm a Schindler a list and the Joy Luck club with subject matter so important to a specific ethnic or racial group should probably be made by directors whose lives were touched in a direct Way by the Central figures or the issues involved. A that w As my Point to Warner Brothers a said Lee Wiio described his struggle to wrest control of the Malcolm project from Norman Jewison who at one time was to direct the film. Quot i tried to con Vince him that this was not his film and that he should gracefully Bow  the most determined advocate of total artistic Freedom was Duke the director of sister act 2, who made the film 77?e cemetery club in Large part because he did not want to be limited  Black director to Black themes Quot we should not be limited by ethnicity a he said a Only by our  Phelan said several Black filmmakers she knew in Hollywood expressed frustration at being expected to Deal with Only Black subject matter. Lee said he was perfectly Happy to be considered a Black filmmaker. Quot nobody can make films about White Suburbia belter than Steven Spielberg Quot he said. A so Why should i make those films a the most exclusion st argument came from Phe Ian who is writing the screenplay for parting the wafers. Phelan who is White argued that the Only Way for Blacks to gain control of their own images in the Cinema is to refuse to see films not made by Blacks a line of reasoning that stunned Lee who asked whether he was being told not to look at the films of Fellini or Kurosawa. The Way to gain control he countered was to be a creative troublemaker As he had tried to be with. Malcolm x. A by speaking up and campaigning a he said a i was Able to Bogart the Job  then he added a word of caution a a there a no guarantee that just because its Black its going to be great. A lot of the Black programs on television Are minstrel shows and they Are written by Black writers. There a no