Pioneers Of African-American Cinema is a collection of 25 features from the earliest makers of films with an all-Black cast. The works of Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams and Richard E. Norman are among the films that have been restored by Bret Wood. At the time, the movies were called race films and they were produced outside of Hollywood. Between 1915 and 1952 up to 500 films were produced but by World War II Black actors were working in Hollywood and race films went into decline. The last film of the genre is 1954’s Carib Gold directed by Harold Young. Netflix is streaming the collection which has music from DJ Spooky, Samuel Waymon and Max Roach and others. In the 8-minute behind the scenes piece, Bret Wood talks about the films and the restoration process.
