Birthright
Cinestudio
Hartford
June 26, 2024
One of the best ways to beat the summer heat is to retreat into the cool darkness of a movie theater. I ducked into Cinestudio at Trinity Campus on a hot evening for their one-day engagement of the 1938 film Birthright.
The movie tells the story of Peter Siner (played by Carman Newsome), a mixed-race man who returns to his small Tennessee hometown after attending college at Harvard University. He wants to build an industrial school for the higher education of African Americans in town, but he’s swindled by a White banker named Henry Hooker into buying land with a deed that prevents him from building a school. Meanwhile, he’s trying to convince the love of his life, Cissie Deldine (Ethel Moses) to marry him, despite the fact that she is already dating another man, Tump Pack (Alec Lovejoy).
There are a few interesting historical caveats that come with watching the film. First, it’s a remake of a 1924 silent film of the same name, which has been lost to time. Both films are based on the novel Birthright, written in 1922 by a White author named T.S. Stribling who sought to “tell the truth” about issues Black Americans faced in the South. Finally, the film itself is incomplete, as the reels which hold the first 20 minutes of the film were never recovered. Instead, Birthright begins with a summary of the missing part of the movie. It’s directed by Oscar Micheaux, considered to be one of the most successful Black directors and producers of the early 20th century.
I was quite surprised by how modern the film felt. I was prepared for a movie that was placed in the straightjacket of standards and practices in the early 20th century. However, the movie shows Peter and Cissie kissing several times throughout, something I thought wouldn’t be shown in films at the time. There is also a dance scene early in the movie that wouldn’t be out of place at all in a modern movie due to its sexuality and provocativeness.
The film felt modern due to the subject matter as well. Almost 90 years later, African Americans are still dealing with banks screwing us over, as it seems that every year there’s a new story about lending discrimination. After Peter is swindled, many people question the value of his education if a “poor White man” like Hooker can get over on him so easily. Those scenes seemed to echo our current debate about college, and whether taking on the massive debt associated with higher education is worth it, or the debate between liberal arts education and trade schools which Peter embodied himself, as he attended Harvard but wanted to build a Tuskegee Institute-type school.
But it mostly reminded me of modern times because of the people. Even with race and discrimination in the backdrop, the primary motivators are emotions that are all too familiar to us today: lust, jealousy, greed and hate. Those basic emotions drive Tump to pull a gun on Peter; Cissie to steal a brooch; Peter’s mother Caroline (Trixie Smith) to disapprove of Cissie as a “yellow hussie”; and Hooker to trick Peter out of both his school and his money.
Fortunately, Peter’s tale has a happy ending. After his school plan fails, Peter is taken in by a White man known as Captain Andrews (I may be wrong about this; it was difficult to make out what was being said at times), who is secretly Peter’s father. When he dies, he leaves all of his assets to Peter, who uses them to open two schools for Black children. He and Cissie are married, and literally ride off into the sunset as the words “The End” spread across the screen.
One can only hope that ultimately, the tale of racism and discrimination in America has a similarly happy ending. Things have certainly improved since the 1930’s, but as Birthright demonstrates, perhaps not as much as we think they have.
NEXT
Cinestudio premieres Fancy Dance on Friday, June 28.
Jamil goes out to get his favorite food for lunch.
