SLIFF Interview: Musician Stace England on WITHIN OUR GATES and Oscar Micheaux

The 1920 silent film WITHIN OUR GATES screens as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The film will be accompanied by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Oscar Micheaux, writer-director of WITHIN OUR GATES. The screening is sponsored by Renee Hirshfield. Ticket information can be found HERE

As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films, was thought lost until a print was discovered in Spain in 1990 and restored by the Library of Congress in 1992. This screening features a new restoration that offers an even more faithful approximation of the film as originally released. SLIFF has again invited Cairo, Ill.’s Stace England & the Salt Kings to play the original score the group created for the 2009 presentation. The band will also offer a few selections from its album “The Amazing Oscar Micheaux,” whose songs were inspired by the filmmaker’s life and work.

Screen Syndicate is a side project of Southern Illinois-based Americana band Stace England and the Salt Kings. The band has performed at numerous film festivals in the U.S. and Europe — appearing three times at SLIFF in the past — with shows about and Cairo, Ill. And the show about pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux once before in 2009.

Stace England hails from southern Illinois and found his creative footing in Chicago during the early ’90s with House Afire, one of the first country/roots bands in what was to become a very vibrant alt-country scene. England returned to southern Illinois and recorded a project of aggressive folk material under the name Tecumseh, releasing the well-received “Bearings” in 1995. His next musical adventure was with the alt/slasher/country-rock outfit Jubilee Songbirds, which released the eclectic “Birds of North America” (Western Front) in 1997. England released his first solo record, “Peach Blossom Special” (Relay) in 1999, and a power pop CD in 2003, “Lovey Dovey ALL the Time” (Gnashville Sounds).

Stace Englandtook the time to answer some questions for We Are Movie Geek before the Oscar Micheaux presentation at The St. Louis International Film Festival

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman

Tom Stockman: What have you guys been up to in the two years since you were here in St. Louis with your Roberta Collins program?

Stace England: We’ve been finishing the CD about Roberta Collins and that has taken longer than our normal cycle because everyone in the band is so busy these days.  Also the subject matter and songs have led the production toward more grandiose ideas like big vocals, lots of harmonies and intricate guitar work.  It’s not quite a “Chinese Democracy” time frame like the Axl only version of Guns and Roses but every time we finish a section new ideas crop up.  We’re going to keep riding it out but do want to complete the record for some shows next year.

TS: How did you get the idea to incorporate movie figures into your music?

SE: The accidental discovery of Oscar Micheaux and our subsequent astonishment at his life story led us to do a CD about his films and life and with that project we began to play a lot of film festivals.  We’ve really enjoyed it because many of these festivals, especially one like SLIFF, are very well organized and very enjoyable to play.  People who like film and attend these festivals are generally knowledgeable, open minded and fun to be around.  Those experiences led us to consider more film oriented music and there are countless interesting subjects to consider.

TS: Tell me about the creative process for scoring a film like WITHIN OUR GATES.

SE: We spend a lot of time watching and absorbing the film multiple times.  We want to see how it hits us in the gut and then work though what comes out of that.  Of course you’re filtering things through your own set of lenses, and we’re an Americana type band, or I guess we were at that time.  The film felt earthy and rootsy to us.  Many of the characters are from the deep south and I think the score reflects that.

TS: Will you be performing songs with lyrics in addition to the score, or does the score itself have lyrics?

SE: Our score does not have lyrics but after the film but we will be performing several songs from our Micheaux CD and show clips from those films.  It’s likely we’ll be doing “The Symbol of the Unconquered,” another amazing film released just after Within Our Gates which includes scenes of the Klan and Micheaux poking fun at some of D.W. Griffith’s camera angles from “The Birth of a Nation.”  “Body and Soul” was Paul Robeson’s first film and even watching five minutes of his commanding presence on screen is something to see.  We also thought we’d do one of the later films, “Lying Lips” which is one of Micheaux’s penny pinched talkies.

TS: Tell me about Oscar Micheaux and how you came to write music about him? When did you first become aware of him?

SE: I discovered Micheaux in 2008 browsing the non-fiction new books section at the library in Carbondale, Illinois.  I picked up Patrick McGilligans’ great book, “Oscar Micheaux: the Great and Only” which is what what Micheaux reportedly called himself.  Patrick has since become a good friend and he wrote the liner notes for our CD.  Micheaux’s picture is quite compelling, then I opened the book and the first chapter is “1884 – 1900 Metropolis, Illinois” which is near where we live.  I was completely knocked flat by his astonishing life story and very surprised I’d never heard of him.  The songs began to flow quickly after the first reading.

TS: Is the fact that you and he are both from Southern Illinois a reason you were compelled to write music about him?

SE: Yes.  We consider him a very important person from the region and a fearless hero and role model in many ways.  We’re very proud he was a southern Illinoisan early in his life.

TS: Have you see many of his other films besides WITHIN OUR GATES or read any of his novels? How many of his films are extant?

SE: Yes.  One of the first things we did was to try and find all of his surviving films.  Historians vary slightly on the number of films he produced but it was likely an incredible forty four or so.  Only twelve survive and we found a small collector/vendor in Portland, Oregon who had acquired all of them over many years.  We got all the films and watched them in chronological order, something we also did with all the Roberta Collins films.   That method really gives you a good feel for the arc of someone’s career.  I have also read all of his novels.  The similar plot in several, as was also used in his first film “The Homesteader” is psychologically interesting and numerous writers have explored that.

TS: Have you been in touch with any of his ancestors?

SE: Yes.  A distant relative contacted me shortly after the release of our CD and connected me with some other family members.  They are both proud of Micheaux and appreciative of anyone who helps highlight his legacy.  So we’re greatly honored by that.

TS: Why do you think Oscar Micheaux has been so forgotten?

SE: Micheaux had been largely forgotten late in his life, primarily because a new generation of African American writers and press were only aware of his increasingly penny pinched talking films, which were very poorly produced and probably somewhat embarrassing to the new kids on the block.  They didn’t know about “Within Our Gates,” “The Homesteader,” “Body and Soul” and other films that were important, envelope pushing and ground breaking.  When Micheaux came out of retirement from filmmaking and released “The Betrayal” in 1948, yet another retelling of his homesteader story it was panned by everyone regardless of skin color.  In addition, films like “Within Our Gates” and “The Symbol of the Unconquered” were lost for decades and only rediscovered in Europe in the 1990’s.  So no one really knew about his vital importance as filmmaker early in his career.

TS: Will you be speaking about Oscar Micheaux at the event?

SE: We won’t be speaking officially but we are available to answer questions and the film often generates many.

TS: How do the portrayals of African Americans in Micheaux’s films differ than the way they were portrayed in Hollywood films from the same period?

SE: Early in his career beginning in 1919 African Americans, or whites playing African Americans like in “The Birth of a Nation” were essentially walking stereotypes that more often than not fit racist narratives.  There were other African American filmmakers active slightly before Micheaux like The Lincoln Motion Picture Company formed in 1916.  Lincoln was making short films that generally showed blacks in a positive light.  Micheaux was the first to make full length films and starting with “Within Our Gates” began to show the truth of African American life as he saw it.  In addition to to heroic characters Micheaux included thieves, gamblers, grifters and complacent clergy in it for the money.  This upset a lot of people who thought he should “uplift the race” by showing only positive role models.  Many of the African American companies including Lincoln sprang up and died out quickly, but one of the most remarkable things about Micheaux is that he was able to keep it going, and show characters one would rarely see in a Hollywood film.  They were doctors, policemen, detectives and and successful business people.  People who disparage his later work forget that Micheaux was still making films thousands of people wanted to see, because they simply could not see that reality in Hollywood productions.  In other words, they’d rather see a poorly produced Micheaux film to anything coming out of the larger studios that mainly relegated people to offensive stereotypes.  When Micheaux saw “Imitation of Life” in 1934 he was angered and felt he could do a much better job.  He released “God’s Stepchildren” in 1938 which is a similar story line, and I greatly prefer it.  It’s gritter, more moving and probably much closer to the reality of what African Americans faced at the time regarding skin color within their community, the heartbreak of “passing” and the fear of discovery.

TS: Is this “new restoration” of WITHIN OUR GATES the same print you accompanied in 2009?

SE: The cut is slightly different but basically the same.  One of the challenges with the film is that it was lost for decades until a single print was found in Madrid in 1990 with Spanish intertitles.  Those were translated back to English so we’re not sure of the exact language.  Also Micheaux’s films were constantly chopped up and edited to satisfy censors, meet run time requirements and for various other reasons.  So we really don’t know what the original film may have completely looked like.  All restorations have made attempts to stick to Micheaux’s original vision.

TS: How do you think WITHIN OUR GATES plays to today’s audiences?

SE: It’s an interesting question and the answer is that it plays well, and generally intrigues people enough to want to know more about Micheaux and see more of his work.  What’s astonishing to us is that the film actually made it onto movie screens in the United States in 1920.  So we encourage people to mentally transport themselves to that time period when watching the film.   It’s so far out on the on the envelope it’s almost beyond the realm of what’s actually possible.  The lynching scene alone would be daring and controversial if it was shot in 2016.  One of the questions we asked ourselves as we revisited the film recently was how did he get white actors at the time to participate in some of these scenes?  He must have been one persuasive individual and a force to be reckoned with.   It’s mind blowing really.

TS: Is there another movie figure that you perhaps have in mind for a future movie project? When I interviewed you two years ago, you mentioned Joseph Cotton.

SE: Right now the first goal is to complete the Roberta Collins CD and do some shows with that material.  Cotton is someone we find endlessly fascinating, starring in film after magnificent film for a long period and then as you’ve pointed out, reduced to schlock stuff to keep working later in life.  And we may encounter another compelling character.  We like fairly obscure subjects like Micheaux and Collins that people have to reach for a little.  On the latest project it would have been much better career wise do so something about Pam Grier for example.  We found Roberta’s story much more compelling, even though she’s virtually unknown.  So was Micheaux’s, but his keeps rising a little year after year.  You can’t compare the two in terms of importance, Micheaux wins that hands down.  But both are very interesting human dramas and that’s what keeps us exploring.