Kino has announced July 26th as the release date for their 5-disc presentation of Pioneers of African American Cinema (1918-1946) on DVD and Blu-ray.

The set contains 27 shorts and feature-length films directed by and starring several luminaries of early African American cinema. The project came to fruition via a Kickstarter campaign last February.

Bonus content has not been announced.

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.

Musical scores (for silent films) by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), Max Roach, Samuel D. Waymon, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Donald Sosin, Makia Matsumura, Alloy Orchestra, Rob Gal, Andrew Simpson.

FILMS:

• Birthright (1938)
• The Blood of Jesus (1941)
• Body and Soul (1925)
• The Bronze Buckaroo (1939)
• By Right of Birth (1921)
• Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, South Carolina (1940)
• The Darktown Revue (1931)
• Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA (1946)
• Eleven P.M. (1930)
• The Exile (1931)
• The Flying Ace (1926)
• God's Stepchildren (1938)
• Heaven-Bound Traveler (1933)
• Hellbound Train (1930)
• Hot Biskits (1931)
• Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918)
• Regeneration (1923)
• The Scar of Shame (1929)
• S.S. Jones Home Movies (1924-26)
• The Symbol of the Unconquered: A Story of the KKK (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)