New Box Set Celebrates 'Pioneers of African-American Cinema'
A recently released movie collection hopes to celebrate and bring awareness to black movies made between World War I and the mid-20th century.
Pioneers of African-American Cinema is a five CD set that includes the work of directors Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams, as well as projects from James and Eloyce Gist, and Zora Neale Hurston.
Pioneers originally began as a Kickstarter campaign launched by Kino Lorber earlier this year. The project ultimately exceeded its original goal, allowing for both the collection to become a reality and for more content to be added to it.
As Kino Lorber states in a press release:
"Defying convention and operating outside the studio system, these filmmakers were the forefathers (and mothers) of the French New Wave, the L.A. Rebellion, and the entirety of American indie cinema. Previously circulated in poor quality 16mm prints, these newly restored versions allow us to witness the legacies of Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, and James and Eloyce Gist with fresh eyes— proving that, anything but imitative, these Pioneers of African-American Cinema were purely innovative."
This is true. The content that makes up Pioneers comes from a time in which black filmmakers were making movies for black people with all black casts. Some were modeled on Hollywood genres, while others developed distinctive idioms, resulting in different works of black cinema that are just as important now as they were back then. Take Micheaux's Body and Soul for example, which gave actor Paul Robeson his first screen role as a corrupt and exploitative clergyman. These projects made history.
Pioneers will also feature music scores from DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller), Samuel Waymon and jazz drummer virtuoso Max Roach, as they all provide different sounds to a number of silent black films.
The collection is available on Kino Lorber's website: $99.95 for the Blu-ray set and $79.95 for the DVD set.
Check out a trailer for the release below.
