By the time Micheaux settled in Harlem, in 1920, he had already started his own production company, becoming the first Black filmmaker to do so. Across the silent and sound eras, Micheaux directed some forty films portraying multifaceted Black characters at the heart of human stories in which romance, drama, social mobility, and race overlapped. At this midpoint of Ten Minutes to Live, a protagonist (Willor Lee Guilford) is pursued by a murderer out of town. The sweeping vistas of uptown boulevards and jarring soundtrack yield high melodrama from simple means. This intrepid style was characteristic of Micheaux. As a self-made auteur, he was both a pioneer and reflective of a film industry that to this day falls short in granting resources to Black creators.

Additional text from

2020

Object number W6019
Department Film - Work/Variant

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