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.

True Fan of Independent Film, Donald Krim Succumbs

Donald Krim, president of Kino International and co-president of Kino Lorber Inc., died on Friday in his New York home after a one-year battle with cancer. He was 65.

As president of Kino International, Krim helped introduce now influential film directors including Wong Kar-Wai, Michael Haneke, Amos Gitai, Aki Kaurismäki, Julie Dash and Andrei Zvyagintsev. During his career, he received the Mel Novikoff Award from the San Francisco Film Festival in 2000 for his work to “enhance the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema.” Six years later, Krim received the William K. Everson Award for Film History by the National Board of Review. He also was honored with the Film Preservation Honors Award by the Anthology Film Archives that same year. Most recently, Krim received the Visionary Award at the 24th annual Israel Film Festival.

After graduating from Columbia University, Krim worked at United Artists, where he met Bill Pence, who founded Kino International. In 1977, Krim bought the company and began to expand by releasing new films. In 1987, Kino International opened up a home entertainment section, Kino on Video, which then became the most respected independent labels in the field.

Over the years, Kino International has released many influential films, including Shôhei Imamura's Vengeance is Mine and The Ballad of Narayama; Percy Adlon's Sugarbaby; André Techiné's Scene of the Crime; Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee; Volker Schlöndorff's The Legend of Rita; Amos Gitai's Alila and Kedma; Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild; Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy; Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami; Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust - a film the Library of Congress deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In place of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Fresh Air Fund, the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and Red Hook Rise. They do not make them like Donald Krim any more. R.I.P.