Among the most fascinating chapters of cinematic history is that of the so-called “race films” that flourished in the U.S. between the 1920s and ’40s. Unlike the “black cast” films produced within the Hollywood studio system, these films not only starred African Americans but were funded, written, produced, edited, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color. Entrepreneurial filmmakers built an industry apart from the Hollywood establishment, cultivating visual and narrative styles that were uniquely their own. Among the trailblazing artists whose work is featured here are Oscar Micheaux, the first major African American feature filmmaker, whose body of work includes BODY AND SOUL, starring Paul Robeson in his film debut, and WITHIN OUR GATES; Spencer Williams, whose masterpiece THE BLOOD OF JESUS is among the most celebrated race films of the era; Zora Neale Hurston, the renowned writer who was also a pioneering ethnographic filmmaker; and James and Eloyce Gist, DIY evangelist filmmakers whose fascinating morality tales were exhibited in black churches. This landmark collection, curated by scholars Charles Musser and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart for Kino Lorber, collects an astonishing range of features, shorts, and fragments. Taken together, these vital, long-neglected works represent a rich alternative history of American cinema forged by innovative artists who defied systemic oppression to tell their own stories on-screen.
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1920 • United States
Starring Evelyn Preer, William Starks, Mattie Edwards
WITHIN OUR GATES is the earliest surviving feature film by an African American director. It was Oscar Micheaux’s second film (after 1919’s THE HOMESTEADER, now lost), centering on an idealisti...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1920 • United States
Starring Iris Hall, Walker Thompson, Lawrence Chenault
THE SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED is a response, of sorts, to D. W. Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION. In Oscar Micheaux’s rendition, the Klan (here renamed the Knights of the Black Cross) is depi...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1925 • United States
Starring Paul Robeson, Mercedes Gilbert, Lawrence Chenault
Although the 1920s brought him acclaim as a stage actor and singer, Paul Robeson still had to prove himself as a viable screen performer. Mainstream avenues were limited, however, and his...
Directed by Richard E. Norman • 1926 • United States
Starring Laurence Criner, Kathryn Boyd, Steve Reynolds
Unlike his 1923 film REGENERATION, Richard Norman’s THE FLYING ACE exists in its entirety, and the image quality is stunning. A rural crime drama revolving around a pair of rival aviators,...
Directed by Roy Calnek • 1926 • United States
Starring Charles S. Gilpin, Lawrence Chenault, Harry Henderson
Based on the hugely popular 1854 temperance novel by Timothy Shay Arthur (and William W. Pratt’s 1858 stage adaptation), Roy Calnek’s TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM boasts a masterful performan...
Directed by Frank Perugini • 1929 • United States
Starring Harry Henderson, Lucia Lynn Moses, Lawrence Chenault
When a young woman (Lucia Moses) escapes from her abusive father (William E. Pettus), she is rescued by an aspiring composer (Harry Henderson), but encounters opposition from his class...
Directed by Richard Maurice • 1928 • United States
Starring Richard Maurice, Sammie Fields, Wanda Maurice
Produced in Detroit, Michigan by little-known African American filmmaker Richard Maurice, ELEVEN P.M. is a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to prote...
Directed by James Gist and Eloyce Gist • 1930 • United States
HELL-BOUND TRAIN is arguably the most significant rediscovery in Pioneers of African American Cinema. The film is the work of self-taught filmmakers James and Eloyce Gist, African American evangelists who employed cinema as a tool for...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1931 • United States
Starring Eunice Brooks, Stanley Morrell, Nora Newsome
THE EXILE is the earliest surviving sound feature by an African American filmmaker. Director Oscar Micheaux responds to the arrival of sound with a change in his visual style, indulging in len...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1932 • United States
Starring Carl Mahon, Star Calloway, Alice B. Russell
A remake of director Oscar Micheaux’s now-lost 1926 silent film THE SPIDER’S WEB, THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO is another film that explores the cultural rift between the urban and the rural, set in b...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1932 • United States
Starring Lawrence Chenault, Willor Lee Guilford, Lorenzo Tucker
Resisting the stagebound atmosphere of THE EXILE, Oscar Micheaux found ways to shoot a talking picture on location, without cumbersome and expensive audio recording equipment. He did...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1932 • United States
Starring Lucille Lewis, Lawrence Chenault, Walter Fleming
A remake of director Oscar Micheaux’s (now lost) 1925 film THE HOUSE BEHIND THE CEDARS, VEILED ARISTOCRATS exists in incomplete form, but the missing footage does not impair one’s enjoymen...
Directed by Oscar Micheaux • 1938 • United States
Starring Carman Newsome, Ethel Moses, Alec Lovejoy
An idealistic young man attempts to establish a school in a rural location, but encounters opposition from both the black and white communities. Director Oscar Micheaux himself was a former homes...
Directed by Richard C. Kahn • 1939 • United States
Starring Herb Jeffries, Lucius Brooks, Artie Young
A Hollywood-style western with a black cast, THE BRONZE BUCKAROO stars Herb Jeffries as singing cowboy Bob Blake, a smooth, brave, and honorable hero who is assisted by his comic sidekick Dusty,...
Directed by Spencer Williams • 1941 • United States
Starring Cathryn Caviness, Spencer Williams, Juanita Riley
The first feature by director/actor Spencer Williams (commonly remembered today as Andy on TV’s “Amos ’n’ Andy”), THE BLOOD OF JESUS is a rural religious parable in which a woman (Cathr...
Directed by Spencer Williams • 1946 • United States
Starring Francine Everette, Don Wilson, Katherine Moore
In an unauthorized retelling of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “Miss Thompson,” Francine Everette stars as Gertie La Rue, a nightclub entertainer who arrives at a Caribbean resort to en...
