Midnight Ramble

"Race movies" they were called, the nearly 500 films made by and for blacks from 1910-1950 when segregation was the law of the land. Running from midnight until 2 a.m., these movies spanned the gamut of genres--drama, vaudeville, westerns, gangster, and so on, and featured all or mostly black casts. In hundreds of theaters across the country, black audiences attended these showings (or, in the slang, went on "midnight rambles"), and this intriguing episode of The American Experience charts the rise and fall of the black film industry in America from the turn of the century to the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education decision. Combining interviews with black actors and historians, Midnight Ramble focuses on the career of Oscar Micheaux, a black filmmaker who first ranched in North Dakota, then wrote and self-published novels which he sold door-to-door, and finally began his film career in 1918 with an adaptation of his novel The Homesteader. In his 30-year career, Micheaux would make 40 films, many dealing with controversial themes such as interracial romance and the abominable practice of lynching. Although Hollywood portrayed blacks as either comic buffoons or subhumans (as in Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation), black audiences found solace in the late night screenings of black films that were much more honest and entertaining to boot. Sure to appeal to film buffs, Midnight Ramble is highly recommended for larger film study collections. (R. Pitman)