Film: Within Our Gates

On Wednesday, we watched the black and white film Within Our Gates This movie was a silent film and all the dialog had to be written in a blank frame. This movie was hard to follow as nothing except instrumental music was played. However, despite a low amount of speaking, it was a full film.

Something about the film that is interesting is that the black characters that were portrayed more as the hero or the main characters were a lot lighter skinned. In a couple scenes, the lighting was different, making them appear much darker. This made a differentiation between the blacks within the movie, which the film has received criticism about.

While the white people are the ones shown with all the money and power, one kind old white lady decides to donate to the school for African American students, and further more decides to donate $50,000 instead of $5,000. This movie shows truths of the time, and has some sense of closure and help towards the end.