Community Celebrates Filmmaker Micheaux at Launch Ceremony for Commemorative Stamp

At Columbia’s Miller Theatre , School of the Arts film program chair Jamal Joseph , adjunct film professor Geoffrey Fletcher , alumna Lisa Collins (SoA’98) and other faculty participated in a U.S. Postal Service ceremony to dedicate a new commemorative postal stamp in honor of pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The Postal Service event was co-hosted by the School of the Arts and the Harlem Arts Alliance.

The formal unveiling of the stamp. L-R: Voza Rivers, chair of the Harlem Arts Alliance; filmmakers Mark Schwartzburt, Lisa Collins and Melvin Van Peebles; Delores J. Killette, vice president and consumer advocate, United States Postal Service; and Columbia faculty Geoffrey Fletcher and Jamal Joseph

Born in Illinois in 1884 and the son of freed slaves, Micheaux was the first African American to produce a feature-length film in the U.S. His first film, The Homesteader, released in 1918, was based on a novel he wrote, self-published and self-distributed. Over the course of his career, Micheaux wrote, directed and distributed more than 40 movies. In February 2009, Columbia School of the Arts, along with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, hosted a major conference on Micheaux’s work and legacy.

“It is particularly fitting and especially exciting to partner today with the U.S. Postal Service as it unveils a stamp in Micheaux’s honor,” said University Provost Claude Steele , who welcomed guests to the event.

Jamal Joseph spoke of his admiration for Micheaux as a young filmmaker. “He made these films that would make us proud, that would let us celebrate ourselves, that would let us know that black stories—African American stories—were American stories.” Joseph called Micheaux’s blend of art and activism “artivism.”

The Harlem IMPACT Repertory Theatre, a nonprofit performing arts group that Joseph co-founded for teenagers and young adults in Harlem, performed music and choreography set to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Raise It Up.” In 2008 the group received an Oscar nomination for the latter song, which was featured in the film August Rush.

Geoffrey Fletcher, who received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay this March for the film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, said that he was “humbled and intimidated” to speak on Micheaux’s behalf.

“For anyone trying to excel in any field, anyone who sees too many challenges ahead, anyone who perseveres because he or she realizes the power of an individual’s potential, Oscar Micheaux stands as an inspiration,” Fletcher said.

The event also showcased a trailer for the documentary, Oscar’s Comeback, directed and produced by film alumna Lisa Collins. The film follows Collins’ journey to the small town of Gregory, South Dakota, where Micheaux purchased land in 1904 and worked as a homesteader. There Collins documents the at times comical effort of a handful of residents to produce an Oscar Micheaux film festival, in spite of the fact that virtually no one in Gregory (a town without one black resident) has heard of Micheaux or seen his work.

Following the formal unveiling of the new stamp, the ceremony featured a musical tribute to Micheaux by the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet and remarks from independent filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.

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