Reel Sisters do Real Things: Pearl Bowser

She re-introduced the world to Oscar Micheaux-- a pioneer of silent films and race films and arguably one of the most important black filmmakers of the first half of the 20th Century.

Pearl Bowser received critical acclaim and national recognition for her survey of Oscar Micheaux who, until then, had virtually disappeared altogether from public notice.

In her book, Writing Himself Into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, Pearl Bowser brought renewed context to the struggles of early black filmmakers in their attempts to redefine the images and identity of blacks in the media through cinema.

Born in Harlem in 1931, the youngest of seven children, Pearl grew up in a sheltered household of five older brothers, making her terribly soft-spoken and painfully shy.

“I was also very tall for my age, so in grammar school kids picked on me until one day all of my brothers came up to the school,” said Pearl. “I don’t know what they did, but after that, they really didn’t want to mess with me. So I didn’t have a lot of friends, and I was often off to myself.”

She spent much of her early years with her brothers in the theaters along 125th Street, watching the Hollywood Westerns, B-movies and whatever black films were out at the time.

“The moviehouse was a babysitter, because my mother was a domestic, so she would give the oldest boy a dollar, and we could get in for a nickel each,” said Pearl. “The dollar covered a large bottle of soda pop and broken cookies from Kress Five and Dime on 125th Street.”

By the time she got to high school, Pearl was desperate to form her own identify and find her own voice. Luckily, being a teenager in Harlem during the 40s provided that opportunity, as the cultural arts scene was just beginning to bloom.

“My teenage years was a time of expansion for me, because I was beginning to gain some inner strength and some kind of direction to my life,” said Pearl. “I wanted to know who I was as a black person.

“On nearly every corner of 125th Street, there were street orators. Malcolm X used the corner as a platform, as did many other people. They were a part of my education. They were informative, including Father Divine of the Peace Movement.”

Pearl Joined the Paul Robeson Club, an interracial club that would meet up at Tibbetts Brook, a park in the Bronx, to discuss poetry and politics; they would also picnic and play games.

Paul Robeson was a galvanizing political figure, a cosmopolite who served as a bridge to the broader world community of art, politics, film and culture. He was someone for which the black community felt a lot of pride.

“Paul Robeson was very much exposed to the outside community: he was a star on stage; he worked with white directors; he went to Rutgers University; he was a football player. He was exposed to the broader community in a way that many of us were not,” said Pearl.

“And he was always sharing, whether it was in music, through folksongs, it was all informative, giving us a sense of identity and pride.”

When Pearl turned 18, she decided to move to Brooklyn, because she wanted to leave home, get her own room and be closer to Brooklyn College where she was enrolled. She then took a job at CBS tabulating the Nielsen Ratings for the soap operas.

“It was fascinating, because the soap companies literally would switch the story based on how the ratings were going so they could keep their audiences,” said Pearl. She said it showed her how media manipulated public perceptions of themselves and their reality, even in its exclusion of blacks in any of the roles.

At CBS, a tv producer at ABC hired Pearl to conduct a series of interviews in Hollywood with actors and others who knew Oscar Micheaux as a writer, producer and distributor of films made for black audiences.

The assignment proved to be one of the most exciting, eye-opening experiences of her life, as she gained a profound appreciation for his critical role as a pioneer of progressive black cinema.

Her researched opened the door for black film festivals centered around Micheaux and other important early filmmakers. She has curated a number of film festivals in the U.S., Africa and Europe as well as serving as a film consultant on such films as Wild Women Don’t Sing the Blues; Looking for Langston; Spirit to Spirit – Nikki Giovanni; and Tiny & Ruby.

Pearl Bowers was an advisor for the documentary Wild Women Don't Have the Blues (1989). In 1994, she co-directed  Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies, a TV series documentary that ran on The American Experience; in 1985, she directed Namibia: Independence Now! in Italy she recieved the prestigeous  Jean Mitry Award for the rediscovery of OM as a part of America 's  national cinema and its history

In October 2001, Ms. Bowser was also recognized at the Gianate Cinema Muto in Sacile, Italy for co-editing Oscar Michaeux & His Circle, a catalogue reference book that accompanied seven restored Black silent era films at the film festival. And in February, 2002, Ms. Bowser won the Kraszner Krausz Book Award in London for authoring Writing Himself Into History: Oscar Micheaux His Silent Films and His Audiences. The book was one of 250 entries from 10 countries to be considered for this prestigious award. 

Today, she still lives in Brooklyn and works as the director of African Diaspora Images, a collection of historical and contemporary films and memorabilia documenting Black film history.

Pearl Bowser is a living legend. In her pursuit and dedication to bring recognition to one of black cinema’s most important trailblazers, Oscar Micheaux, she has become a trailblazer in her own right.

“What I would like to see among contemporary young filmmakers is a sense of knowledge of their history, so that they are not inventing, but they are basing their stories on some reality within the culture,” says Pearl Bowser.

“We need to tell our own stories, but we need to tell the truth. We don’t need to invent. The stories are a part of our culture. The stories are there.”

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Pearl Bowser will be presented with the Pioneer Award on Saturday, October 15, at the Reel Sisters Film Festival and Lecture Series, a two-day film festival beginning October 15 -16 at the Kumble Theater on LIU’s Brooklyn campus. Also honored that day will be who will be presented with the Trailblazer Award. For more information on for the Reel Sisters Film Festival, call 718-488-1624 or 347-534-3304. For tickets, visit www.reelsisters.org or www.kumbletheater.org.