Within Our Gates And Watermelon Woman (Essay Sample)

Within Our Gates  And Watermelon Woman

Within Our Gates (1920)
The movie, Within Our Gates, was produced in 1920 when there were racial solid intrigues. It is considered one of the most indispensable movies called race pictures produced by African American artists for black audiences. The movie gives an account of the US racial situation the way it was during the early 20th century at the times of Jim Crow and the Klux Klan (Micheaux 24). The movie is plotted around a mixed-race school teacher, Silvia Landry, who sacrifices to travel North to look for funds for poor black children. She falls in love with a black doctor and narrates how her parents were lynched. Micheaux paints a picture of the ideology of white supremacy and oppression of the black community.
Micheaux aimed at overturning the narrative portrayed by D.W Griffith’s film that racism resulted from ignorance that destroyed national unity. The movie conveyed a message of hope to blacks and wanted to show the whites that blacks could do whatever whites did and that they needed rights and respect. Although the movie has emotional scenes and others that are uneasy to watch, it gives hope to the black community. The film starts with crime melodrama before moving to social issues and ending with a harrowing flashback such as the lynching of innocent African Americans. These were the most common headlines in the news before the movie was released. Before the movie's release, Micheaux's wife had been injured by a runaway horse. She was turned away because she was black. In the film, Sylvia pushes a girl when she is about to be knocked down by a truck owned by a wealthy woman (Micheaux 14). They took the girl to the hospital, and she was well-treated because she was rich. With these deliberations, there is no doubt the movie reflects the things that happened in the early 20th century and an inspiration for the black community. In the contemporary world, any instances of racism and oppression of the people of color are addressed by watching such a movie that prevents such things from happening again.
Watermelon Woman (1996)
The Watermelon Woman is considered a groundbreaking movie because it was the first film by a black lesbian filmmaker. However, the film used both deconstructive and realistic techniques to test how the identity of people is shaped by forces like race, gender, and sexual orientation. Although the movie is humorous and politically engaging, it encourages viewers to accept the unstable and contradictory nature of identity. The film’s plot centers on Cheryl’s relationship with a white woman. The critical thing about the movie is that it tries to show the differences between traditional and postmodern conventions. The politics of the issues of gender identity in the early 20th century is different from the way politics of the contemporary world (Kydd 8). At the same time, the movie addresses the representation of persons of marginalized groups. Recent cultural critics have argued that the movie is full of the inaccurate stereotype of black women.