Release Date: 7/26/16; DVD & Blu-Ray
Running Time: 952 mins
Studio: Kino Lorber
Details: This collection of the historically vital works of America’s legendary first African-American filmmakers is the only one of its kind. Funded in part by a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, the packaged set includes no fewer than a dozen feature-length films and nearly twice as many shorts and rare fragments. Subject matter includes race issues that went unaddressed by Hollywood for decades. The 5 disc set, which is executive produced by Paul D. Miller and curated by historians Dr. Jacqueline Stewart of the University of Chicago and Charles Musser of Yale University of 25 films, were restored from HD masters (transferred from archival elements preserved by several leading archives, including the Library of Congress), and is the first major collection of race films to be remastered.
The film to be included in the set are: Birthright (1938), The Blood of Jesus (1941), Body and Soul (1925), The Bronze Buckaroo (1939), By Right of Birth (fragment, 1921), Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, South Carolina (excerpt, 1940), The Darktown Revue (1931), Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA (1946), Eleven P.M. (1930), The Exile (1931), The Flying Ace (1926), God’s Step Children (1938), Heaven-Bound Traveler (1933), Hellbound Train (1930), Hot Biskits (1931), Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), Regeneration (fragment, 1923), The Scar of Shame (1929), S.S. Jones Home Movies (1924-26), The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Ten Minutes to Live (1932), Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1926), Two Knights of Vaudeville (1918), Veiled Aristocrats (1932), Verdict Not Guilty (1934), We Work Again (1937), Within Our Gates (1920).
Bonus features include: optional English subtitles, an 80-page booklet with essays and detailed film notes, interviews with series curators Professors Musser and Stewart, a documentary on the restoration of the films, a documentary on the restoration efforts of the Library of Congress, an archival interview with actors Ethel and Lucia Moses (from 1978), Tyler Texas Black Film Collection promo film (with Ossie Davis, from 1985) and more.
Source(s): Shadow and Act; Amazon.
Black Cinema Connection 