. >> reporter: the set also contains nine films by director oscar micheaux, a one-time pullman train porter turned self-taught, prolific, filmmaker. >> oscar micheaux was mostly considered to be the foundation dna of african american cinema, because again he was independent. he dealt with topics and themes that were directly related to black experiences and with a powerful statement. >> reporter: micheaux tackled issues like racism, lynchings, interracial relationships, and poverty from a black perspective. his films were often a direct response to the earlier, monumental film by d.w. griffith, "the birth of nation," which negatively portrayed blacks and glorified the ku klux klan. by contrast, micheaux's "within our gates," from 1920, the earliest surviving feature film directed by an african-american, the heroine is a mixed race woman named sylvia, who goes to the north to raise money for a school for poor black children in the south. >> in "within our gates," the mixed race character really is viewed as a warm, and supportive person. in "birth of a nation," a mixed race person is