Art and Artifact: Pioneers of African-American Cinema and Its Contemporary Relevance

Gates surveys a different category altogether: that of early black cinema that has been either unavailable or seen only in a degraded state for too many decades. Considering the box set Pioneers of African-American Cinema that was executive produced by Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, and painstakingly curated by professors Charles Musser and Jacqueline Stewart, she comments on the sense of wonderment: that these restorations truly remake the works and how they will be considered. Through her conversation with Miller, Gates traces the project's ambitions.