Kevin Willmott: Self
Quotes
-
Kevin Willmott : Micheaux is really unique in that sense. I mean, he wasn't afraid to be the only black person in Gregory, South Dakota. He wasn't afraid of that; which, a lot of black folks, at that time, would have been very frightened about that. I mean, this is a time of lynching - where black folks are being lynched all over the country. Black life is not valued very high.
-
Kevin Willmott : One of the things I've always loved about Micheaux was that independent spirit. That thing of not letting anything stop him from being his artistic self. He gets a little small crew and drives out to Gregory, South Dakota to shoot a movie. They've got the cameras in the back seat, and you got to remember too, there's no film school, no one can teach you how to do this. I mean, you've got to figure this out - pretty much on your own. And I think all of that comes from that experience in South Dakota. You've got to go out in the middle of nowhere, you got to plant your seed, you got to grow the crop, and then you got to harvest it and then you got to take it to market. I mean, he does all of that - with film.
-
Kevin Willmott : In Micheaux's films, they're not documentary footage; but, they're documentary elements. These are things that are happening in society and to the black community. And he takes those things and he weaves them within the story. 'Within Our Gates' is a kind of example of that.
-
Kevin Willmott : 'Birth of a Nation' makes lynching of black folks a positive thing.
[referring to 'Within Our Gates']
Kevin Willmott : And the fact that Micheaux takes those kind of counter images, that he constructs himself, and targets them directly back at 'Birth of Nation' is a really, really powerful thing at the time. When they show the mob attack the young boy and they hang his parents, those kind of images, you know, you got to understand, those were very shocking at that time.
-
Kevin Willmott : Hollywood, for the most part, is not making, not telling our story. They're not making black films. And so, Micheaux has kind of the corner on the market. in that sense. He uses that to his advantage. So, it was kind of the best of times and the worst of times.
-
Kevin Willmott : Oscar Micheaux is the real Superman; because, he didn't allow kryptonite to stop him - he didn't allow anything to stop him- and they threw everything they had at him and he still was able to get the job done.
-
Kevin Willmott : Interracial relationship was an important issue for Micheaux, as it is still today; because, it's kind of that final barrier, in many ways, you know. When interracial relationships are when people have to, in a sense, accept someone of another race, in their family. The idea, I think, Micheaux had is if you can break that barrier down in some ways, everything racially moves forward.
