Ten Minutes To Live

Director: Oscar Micheaux

1932 / 58min / DCP

Selected by Janicza Bravo

Frustrated by the stagebound atmosphere of his first talkie feature (1931’s The Exile), Micheaux looked for ways to shoot this gangster musical on location, without cumbersome and expensive audio recording equipment. He did this by making one of his characters (Morvis, the Killer) deaf, and having what little dialogue there is spoken offscreen and post-dubbed. Though clumsily executed, these scenes give the film a pleasurable off-kilter quality, while proving Micheaux had a more canny understanding of the medium than he is often given credit for. Featuring a surprisingly provocative dance performance of Duke Ellington’s “Diga Diga Doo” by a bevy of feathered Cotton Club chorines.