AS OUR NATION celebrates Black History Month, Flickeria wants to acknowledge the pioneers of African American Cinema. 'Pioneers of African-American Cinema' is a Kickstarter funded project curated by Charles Musser and Jacqueline Stewart, executive produced by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), and produced by Bret Wood for Kino Lorber.

From the 1920s and into the 1940s, there is yet another unsung chapter of African American history and American cinema history, known as the “race film.” Race films were funded, written, produced, directed, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color throughout the nation in convention theaters as well as churches, halls, fields, and anyplace these cinema innovators could pitch a screen and attract an audience.

While previously circulated in poor quality 16mm prints, these newly restored versions (The Blood of Jesus, Birthright, Within Our Gates, Dirty Gertie from Harlem, U.S.A.) allow audiences to witness the legacies and brilliance of filmmakers Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, and other African American cineastes with an engaged eye and fresh perspective onto the process and this important legacy to Hollywood, the nation, the African American community, and indeed, the world.

PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA series is now unspooling at Film Forum.