Within Our Gates
Within Our Gates

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- 64/100 based on 3,437 votes

Southern negro Sylvia Landry visits her cousin Alma in the north, where there is less racial prejudice than in her home town of Piney Woods in the deep south, and is anxiously awaiting her fiancé, Conrad. But Alma has designs on Conrad and tricks Sylvia into a compromising situation when he arrives, and he abandons her. Disheartened, she returns to Piney Woods to help a reverend running a school for young negroes. Sylvia learns that the reverend hasn't the heart to turn away... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in Within Our Gates:

Evelyn Preer
Flo Clements
James D. Ruffin
Jack Chenault
Charles D. Lucas
Bernice Ladd

Full Plot Details

Southern negro Sylvia Landry visits her cousin Alma in the north, where there is less racial prejudice than in her home town of Piney Woods in the deep south, and is anxiously awaiting her fiancé, Conrad. But Alma has designs on Conrad and tricks Sylvia into a compromising situation when he arrives, and he abandons her. Disheartened, she returns to Piney Woods to help a reverend running a school for young negroes. Sylvia learns that the reverend hasn't the heart to turn away poor students, and unless he can raise $5,000 to supplement the $1.49 per child per year that the state supplies, the school will be closed. She goes up north again to try to raise the money and has little success, but meets kindly negro, Dr. V. Vivian, who helps her regain her stolen purse. When she saves a child from being hit by an auto, she herself is slightly injured. But the owner of the car is philanthropist Mrs. Elena Warwick, who is sympathetic to her quest and promises to donate the $5,000 to the school. Her bigoted southern friend, Mrs. Stratton, tries to talk her out of the donation, and Mrs. Warwick gets so incensed she raises the amount to $50,000. Her job done, Sylvia returns to Piney Woods. But Dr. Vivian has fallen in love with Sylvia and goes to Alma to try to find her. There he learns the shocking details of her past and that of her family.

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Movie Reviews

New Yorker - 6/10 by Richard BrodyMicheaux's narrative manner is as daring as his subject matter, with bold flashbacks and interpolations amplifying the story ...
User Review - 8/10 by David LWithin Our Gates is interestingly directed by Oscar Micheaux due to quick editing, the use of a lot of intertitles and a very urgent tone to it. The film is flawed owing to weaker acting and too many characters, but it's still very well plotted with a particularly interesting twist ending and of course it's a very important movie for being the oldest surviving film about black people and directed by a black director.
User Review - 8/10 by Antonius BThought to have vanished until a single Spanish copy was found in the 1970's, it's a miracle this movie still exists, and it's the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director. That in and of itself makes it very special. It belongs to the genre referred to as 'race films' - movies made by African-Americans for African-American audiences between 1915 and 1950 - the vast majority of which are sadly no longer with us. I'll say up front that the movie is a little scattered, and the acting is mediocre at best - but viewers need to realize this was par for the course for movies in 1920, and this is a rare film from the period that actually has something to say. One of Micheaux's messages is that African-Americans need to be educated and to be allowed to vote in order to rise and have any real power in a country dominated by whites - a country that he still believed in despite its racism, that African-Americans had recently fought for in WWI (albeit in segregated troops), and one he points out they were never immigrants in. In the film there are whites who want to help, and quite generously, and there are also whites who want to keep African-Americans in their place, rationalizing that this will keep them happier, that they have no capacity for anything other than field work. The thought of women's suffrage (which would finally pass into law later in the year the film was released) is repellant to one white woman because she fears African-American women would also have the right to vote. Even more notoriously, there is a mob of whites who lynch a black family, as well as one who attempts rape in scenes which are both powerful and absolutely harrowing. Micheaux shows us the cruel injustice of what were common practices, an ugly part of our history that is hard to acknowledge even today. When the film was released, it was highly controversial for those scenes, and banned or edited in some places. What I was a little surprised by was Micheaux also showing us the negative effects of several African-Americans on their own culture - there is a gambler and thief known as "The Leech", a preacher who urges his congregation to be happy with their place in life because the country belongs to the white man and Heaven will be their reward instead, and a servant who incites whites with misinformation. The latter two endure humiliation with a smile, and Micheaux gets across the point that these variations of 'Uncle Tom' are selfish, helpful to themselves in the short term, but harmful to the culture. I took it as a brilliant call for strength and unity. Micheaux can't help himself in giving some of the characters what they deserve, examples of which are the actual killer for the murder being pinned on an African-American being shot in the hunt, and a little African-American boy escaping the lynching on horseback. While artistically some of these seem questionable, in this case they're probably necessary, because the film would have been far too depressing otherwise. Silent movies from this time period are often hard to watch, they come across as quaint and dated, and the filmmaking seems amateurish by today's standards. 'Within Our Gates' is certainly flawed, but it's a priceless expression of the African-American experience in 1920, and should be seen.
User Review - 8/10 by MJS MThis is a film that will forever be famous for the fact that it is the oldest surviving film directed by an African American. It will forever be shown in retrospectives of African American cinema and as a counterpoint to D.W. Griffen?s The Birth of a Nation. It is probably destined to be more of a historical artifact than as a work of art, but is that such a bad thing? I?ve always been fascinated by history and seeing this film?s context is more than interesting enough to justify a two hour watch. But all this isn?t to say that this is a bad movie in and of itself. It?s a perfectly competent movie from a filmmaking perspective, and while the story is a bit preachy I think that?s probably fair enough, when you?re fighting against the likes of The Birth of a Nation you sort of need to shout.
User Review - 8/10 by Byron BOscar Micheaux is a pioneering African American filmmaker. He was also a novelist. This is his second silent feature, but earliest surviving film. He wrote, directed, and produced this contemporary tale of the African American experience just after World War I. Sylvia (Evelyn Preer) is our heroine. She is betrayed romantically by her cousin in the North, returns home to learn of school funding problems for the children of the mostly illiterate sharecroppers of the South, returns to the North to collect donations for this cause where she is briefly injured after meeting a new romantic interest, and eventually secures money from a kindly white woman. Micheaux is not interested in one-dimensional characters; we see some characters act in certain ways that were acceptable to white people in power, but then we get a glimpse of their true feelings when the white character has gone, so racial prejudice is not ignored. With few opportunities available to them black men are caught up in gambling, the ministry, or servile work. Micheaux avoids obvious stereotypes even though certain character types that would be recognized from literature help in the shorthand of silent storytelling. In this era a white cop is not a sadistic villain, and while one rich racist society lady tries to sway Mrs. Elena Warwick, the sympathetic philanthropist, away from her intention to fund the black school, Micheaux wishes to show that with Sylvia ad Mrs. Warwick working together progress can be made in society. I saw a low resolution copy on YouTube although I'm aware that a better quality transfer from surviving film has been released on DVD. The original title cards have been lost, so others have been substituted and they are quite clunky. Within Our Gates offers a unique perspective of an often ignored segment of America's population.
User Review - 8/10 by Bheema DOutstanding. Great response to Griffith, even more compelling in my own opinion.
User Review - 8/10 by Joel AThis film is the first example of an African American feature filmmaking and this was considered lost & miraculously was found in Spain a few years ago & although its a little disjointed in parts it's a powerful film ahead of its time, technically & racially. All the African American actors where fantastic not only matching their white actors but in many scenes surpassing them. Although quite dark in subject matter it's dealing with many relevant issues & most impressively showed African Americans a not only simply human but complex & fascinating on screen. An incredible that truly is the pioneer of Black Silent Cinema...
User Review - 8/10 by Greg MOscar Micheaux's 1919 film, the oldest surviving film by an African-American director, is a dramatic tale of U.S. race relations in both the North and South.
User Review - 8/10 by Walter CA school in the South that educates African Americans is in need of money so a woman goes to the North in search of money for the school. This movie from 1920 is famous for being the earliest surviving film to be directed by an African American. The most interesting thing about this film is how it captures what it was like to be an African American during the 1920's. Women were fighting for the right to vote but they didn't want African American women to vote. Lynching was still going on and the attitude amongst some whites was that it was better to give money to an African American church then it was to give money to an African American school. God was considered better then an education. It has some powerful scenes in it. One showing a lynching and how the mob started firing on a young boy who was trying to escape. Another scene showing an attempted rape of a black woman by a white man. Worth seeking out.
User Review - 8/10 by Rani VThis movie was just really good and really interesting. There is just so much going on. I mean of course it is interesting historically and sociologically, and the more you contextualize it and place it historically the more interesting it really becomes. There are a number of scenes that really just stop you in your tracks. The scene in "old Ned's" church and one of the last scenes that cuts back and forth between the lynching of the heroines family and her being attacked are two that really stood out. It is hard to follow at times and some loose ends that aren't fully resolved but I am not sure if some of that wasn't because parts of the print was lost. Either way I didn't really mind, I still found myself being drawn in completely. In a way its more like short vignettes hung on a basic plot to drive the movie forward and if you view it with that in mind the holes in the story become really unimportant.

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