Any consideration of this film must begin with the conditions under which it was made. Micheaux had almost no budget, which led to very low production values. He often could not afford to create sets (he used pre-existing locations) or to shoot more than one take of a scene. His audience was African-Americans, who were often excluded from regular movie theaters by segregation laws, and certainly excluded from any reasonable sort of depiction on screen in Hollywood films. Micheaux made a living for many years as an independent filmmaker; his audience was willing to overlook the limitations of form and budget because his films provided them with the only opportunity they had to see the lives of black people on screen.
Given these constraints, consider what the film did for its original audience. In what ways are plot and character different from anything that could have been seen at the time in Hollywood films? In what ways are black people depicted, and how is racism treated? What elements of stereotyping, or of its rejection, can be seen in the film? How does Micheaux position himself both in relation to his audience, and in relation to mainstream (Hollywood) filmmaking of the period?