Printed in The Buchtelite, the University of Akron newspaper

Seeing how it is Black History Month it is time for me to clue everyone in to some of the most important black figures in film. Very few members of the general public know about several of today's ground-breaking directors other than Spike Lee. Don't get me wrong, I love Lee's work, and it is covered later on in this article, but there are many more figures to talk about.
Let's begin in the beginning. Back in the early 1920s, when theaters began sprouting up all over the country, the only roles that Hollywood allowed black artists to take were those in front of the camera, playing the parts of maids, slaves, bartenders and the like. This all changed when Oscar Micheaux, the son of two former slaves, wrote a novel entitled The Homesteader in 1917.
Micheaux had no formal education, but was an extremely prolific writer. After attempting to sell his novel door-door, due to the lack of a distributor, The Homesteader came into the hands of two film producers, George and Noble Johnson. The Johnson Brothers made a living off of releasing films directed towards a black audience and wanted to purchase the film rights of the novel. Micheaux, cautious at the prospect of two white men changing his message, agreed only on the contingency that he direct the film.
After the offer was turned down Micheaux sought out funds for his own independent production, borrowing money from farmers, land owners and several banks. In 1920 he premiered The Homesteaders in Chicago, the location of his new production head quarters. This marked the first film of Micheaux's career, which later branched out to a portfolio of over 30 films that dealt with many race-oriented themes such as lynching, the Ku Klux Klan and rioting.
Micheaux was the only African American filmmaker to make both silent and "talkie" films, but unfortunately, during the following decades very few black directors of any note made their mark. The post war era produced few movies directed by African Americans, but had several films written by African Americans.
Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, was made into a 1961 film starring Sidney Poitiet, which drew quite a large audience.
During the late '40s and early '50s Gordon Parks was a highly decorated photographers for Life magazine. In the early '60 he picked up a 16mm camera and decided to document life in motion, making the short documentary Flavio in 1964. His first feature film, The Learning Tree (1969), is based off of his own novel about two 15 year-old bothers growing up during the early 1900's. This marks the first major Hollywood film to be directed by an African American, a fact that was taken into consideration, when, in 1989, it became one of the first 25 movies to be cataloged in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
The one film that Parks is still remembered for is the 1971 film Shaft. Shaft ushered in a new era of African-American movies now know as blaxploitation, a genre that is recognized by classic funky soundtracks, plenty of gun play and flashy costumes. Parks makes a special appearance in the 2000 remake of Shaft, showing up as an extra in a lounge.
Parks went on to direct the sequel, Shaft's Big Score, and several more films, including Leadbelly, a biography on the classic blues-folk musician Huddie Ledbetter.
Parks' son, Gordon Parks Jr., worked with his father on several of his films before taking the directors chair him self. In 1971, Parks Jr. made Superfly, another blaxploitation classic known mostly for the score by Kurtis Mayfield.
The life-long career of another important filmmaker also came into play at the same time. Melvin Van Peebles Van Peebles was born in Chicago, but it wasn't until he moved to France that he thought about making movies. His first film, The Story of a Three Day Pass, is about an African American soldier stationed in France who falls in love with a white Parisian woman and was released in 1968.
The film earned Van Peebles a deal to direct the film The Watermelon Man in 1970, a film about a white man who experiences life differently after having his skin darkened.
Next Van Peeble's wrote, directed, produced, edited, composed and starred in his most important film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which came out in 1971. Without any major studio funding the project, Van Peebles had to find alternate sources. Comedian Bill Cosby loaned Van Peebles $50,000 to complete the project.
The film made serious comments about the government, race relations and the police, all while appealing to general audiences with its action. At one time the Black Panthers required their members to view this film before gaining entry.
Van Peebles' son, Mario Van Peebles began to direct himself with the cop show 21 Jumpstreet, but made his mark earlier in the popular street film New Jack City. Van Peebles Jr. has made several more films with his father including Panther, a film about the Black Panthers.
In the late '70s and early '80s this trend of popular films geared toward African Americans was put to an end when comedians such as Eddie Murphy burst onto the scene. The spotlight had been taken away from actors who wanted to send a message to borderline slapstick.
Shelton Jackson Lee, better known as Spike Lee, took the film world by storm, bringing African American themes into mainstream cinema in the mid 1980s. A graduate of New York City University's Tisch School of the Arts, Lee made several short films before his first feature, She's Gotta Have It, in 1986. The film went to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and won Lee the Young Filmmaker Award and later on the Best First Feature Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
She's Gotta Have It was the straw that broke the camel's back, braking African American filmmakers into what is now considered the modern independent film generation. While this is still a very important film, Lee's career was just taking off.
Do the Right Thing, Lee's first major studio project, was set on the hot streets of Brooklyn in 1989 and addressed many strong issues while maintaining an element of comedy throughout. One of the film's characters, Radio Raheem, is choked to death by a white cop, an action which spurs a full scale riot.
Lee portrays the character of Mookie, a pizza delivery boy for a racist Italian restrant owner. In the film's end it is Mookie who starts the riots, a scene that represents Lee's anger and frustration toward racism in the modern day. That year Lee was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, but lost to Dead Poets Society.
While Lee went on to make many more films one still stands out today as his opus. Malcolm X, is based off of the autobiography penned by activist himself, along with Alex Hailey, the author of Roots. When the studio funding had run out in the middle of production many African American celebrities and public figures, such as Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordon, opened up their personal checkbooks and paid for the film's completion.
When it was finally released, Malcolm X ended up being over three hours in length and spawned a line of X-related products that flew off of the shelves, such as hat, shirts and more.
While a student at USC, John Singleton made three award winning short films, specially noted for their writing. New Line Cinema quickly purchased his first screenplay, a movie about the harsh realities of growing up with gang warfare in L.A. Singleton was given the directors chair and quickly cast three talented actors to play major roles, Ice Cube, Lawrence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr.
The film won several nominations, but very few awards. Singleton was 24 at the time he was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, making him the youngest person in the award's history for the category.
Singleton's later films weren't quite so strong, but his most recent, the remake of Shaft, brought in quite a bundle of money. His next film, Baby Boy, is slated for release in late June 2001.
There are now several more important African American filmmakers in the Hollywood mainstream and the independent frontier, but the numbers are growing slowly. Studios are still hesitant to make black-themed films, keeping many artists out of the loop. Hopefully in this decade we will see many more important figures rise up and claim the respect and attention that they should.