"[1] The most important of these filmmakers was groundbreaking auteur Oscar Micheaux, whose films Within Our Gates (1920), with "its head-on confrontation of racism and lynching,"The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), about black homesteaders struggling for survival against the Ku Klux Klan on the Midwestern plains," and Body and Soul (1925), featuring legendary performer Paul Robeson's debut as an escaped prisoner, are all included.
[1] Directors Spencer Williams, Richard Maurice, writer and ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston, and film-making couple James and Eloyce Gist are all represented, too, however, as are a variety of selections from the Ebony Film Corporation, work by Solomon Sir Jones and more.
[2][3] The complete run time of the entire anthology is more than 25 hours, and the restoration will be of particular significance to scholars, historians, and film aficionados due to its inclusion of formerly inaccessible footage.
[6] Musical accompaniment includes work by DJ Spooky, Max Roach, Alloy Orchestra, Samuel Waymon, Makia Matsumura, Donald Sosin and others.
[5] Curated by scholars Charles Musser and Jacqueline Najuma, the anthology was distributed by Kino Lorber, which specializes in historic art house film.