The Notorious Elinor Lee

This year, the festival celebrates the work and influence of Oscar Micheaux with this film alongside Murder in Harlem and a documentary on his life in Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking. 

Micheaux’s last extant film stars Robert Earl Jones as Benny Blue, a heavyweight contender modeled after Joe Louis, and Gladys Williams as gangster moll Elinor Lee, who buys Blue’s 10-year contract with plans to make him throw a championship fight. Lee’s scheme is derailed when Blue loses a key fight to a German boxer, clearly modeled off of Max Schmelling. Shot in Biograph studios in the Bronx and produced by pioneering Black aviator Hubert Julian, who hosted the film’s lavish world premiere in Harlem. 

Fun film fact: Thirty years later, Robert Earl Jones’ son James Earl Jones earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Jack Jefferson, a boxer inspired by real-life boxer Jack Johnson, in the film The Great White Hope.