Within Our Gates (1920) on Netflix
Sylvia Landry awaits her fiancé Conrad. Her cousin Alma loves him as well, and Conrad abandons Sylvia. She returns south to a school for poor black children that is short of funds.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb6.4/104,130 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sylvia Landry stays in the North with her cousin Alma while she waits for Conrad, the man she plans to marry. Alma loves Conrad too, and Larry, Alma's stepbrother, pursues Sylvia and is turned down. Alma arranges for Conrad to catch Sylvia in a compromising situation, and he leaves her. Sylvia goes back to the South, where Rev. Jacobs runs Piney Woods School for black children. The school is overcrowded, and the small amount the state pays for black education will not keep it open. Sylvia offers to travel north again and raise $5,000. In Boston her purse is stolen; Dr. Vivian chases the thief and gets it back.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Within Our Gates (1920)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Chicago's Board of Censors rejected Within Our Gates when Oscar Micheaux submitted it in December 1919, and the Chicago Defender reported the picture needed "two solid months to get by the Censor Boards."
- Presumed lost for decades, Within Our Gates was discovered in 1979 in Spain when film historian Thomas Cripps found a single print titled La Negra; only four of its original English intertitles survived, the rest having been replaced with Spanish ones.
- Officials in Omaha, New Orleans and other cities blocked Within Our Gates or demanded cuts of its lynching and attempted-rape scenes, fearing they would spark interracial violence in cities still tense after riots in July 1919.
- Within Our Gates holds a record: it is the oldest known surviving film by an African-American director, and has been named one of the greatest films of all time by a Black director.
- Working on a limited budget, Oscar Micheaux dressed the cast of Within Our Gates in borrowed costumes and props, and he had no opportunity to reshoot any scenes.
