Saturday January 24

PRE-CODE FILM SERIES

Oscar Micheaux's

THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO

FREE / Red Room / Doors at 8:00

Queer created and coded film was erased in 1934 as the Hays Code took effect. This January, Black Cat is hosting three film screenings as we connect with our quieted ancestors.

The strict enforcement of the Production Code in 1934 (also known as the Hays code) dramatically narrowed what could be shown or explored on screen, reversing and erasing the creative openness of the pre-Code era.

Before the Code, filmmakers (particularly women directors, queer-coded storytellers, and Black independent creators like Oscar Micheaux) operated with far more freedom to depict adult themes, morally ambiguous characters, interracial dynamics, sexual autonomy, and queer subtext.

The Code shut these avenues down for decades to come. Queer representation in film was erased or forced into tragic coding. Portrayals of women's independence or sexuality were heavily sanitized. Black filmmakers were pushed further to the margins as Hollywood refused content that challenged racial hierarchies. As a result, the Code didn't merely "puritanically clean up" movies, but it reshaped American film by suppressing voices and stories already struggling for space. This delayed progress in film representation for generations that echoed damaging manufactured oppressive ideals. This code lasted until 1968.

When the Code collapsed in the late 1960s, filmmakers rapidly reclaimed territory that had been off-limits for decades, reviving themes of sexual autonomy, queer identity, political critique, and social realism. This period opened the door for women, queer creators, and filmmakers of color to push back against sanitized Hollywood norms, laying the groundwork for the independent film movements and more honest representation that followed.

This January, we will take a dive together into pre-code era Hollywood with:

Sat Jan 17 Dorothy Arzner's The Wild Party (1929)
Sat Jan 24 Oscar Micheaux's The Girl From Chicago (1932)
Sat Jan 31 Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich's Morocco (1930)

Trigger warning: These films have dated depictions. Made in the late twenties, and early thirties, societal norms were different than today with different expectations from the media. Even in a radical pre-code setting, there are difficult scenes with difficult themes for the modern eye.