Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras by Odie Henderson

[richardmurray]

 

 

 

book link

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/black-caesars-and-foxy-cleopatras

TRANSCRIPT

 

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[Music]

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good evening my name is Susan Spurlock I'm the executive director of Ford Hall

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Forum at suffk University and I'd like to welcome you to this evening's program

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both for those of he here at suffk University and those who are watching the program on YouTube which has been

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live streamed by gbh Forum Network I'm delighted to welcome you to an evening

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with OD Henderson the chief film critic for the Boston Globe upon the

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publication of his book Black Caesars and fox

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cleopatras the history of black exploitation Cinema black Caesars is a spirited

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history and definitive account of black exploitation Cinema the freewheeling

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often Shameless and wildly influential genre from a distinctive voice in film

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history and criticism OD grew up watching black exploitation films which he loved

1:30

without irony but with plenty of self-awareness and humor black exploitation was a major

1:38

Trend but it was never simple the films mix self-empowerment with

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exploitation base stereotypes stereotypes with essential

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representation that spoke to the lives of black

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people and the fantasies of black viewers the time is right for a

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reappraisal understanding these films in the context of the time and exploring their lasting influence and OD knew that

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the time is right the time is tonight to our YouTube audience welcome

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we are so happy that you are joining us we look forward to you joining the

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conversation and putting your comments and questions in the chat which is been

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monitored and we would love to get to your questions and comments uh when we get to that point um in the program I'd

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like to uh recognize the evening's co-sponsors suffk University's uh

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communication journalism and media Department our office of diversity access and inclusion our Student Center

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for diversity and inclusion suffk University's black Alumni network gbh

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Forum Network and I'm very proud to say that this is a program of suffk University's Ram inclusion week which is

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a series of programs taking place all this week in honor of Black History

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Month I'd like to thank the LOL Institute for their generous funding which makes programs like uh this

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evening's possible the evening's moderator is Candace McDuffy who is a nationally

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acclaimed senior writer at the root who focuses on the intersection of race

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gender and entertainment her work has been featured on digital platforms such as Rolling

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Stone MTV Forbes paper spin

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Newsweek Entertainment Weekly glamour Vibe title Marie Claire Essence the

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Boston Globe NPR I can go on and on um and Candace is also the author of

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of a highly acclaimed book 50 rappers who changed the

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world it is now my pleasure to introduce our esteemed guest who's

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joining us in the Fort Hall Forum Podium this evening Odie Henderson

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[Music]

4:25

Odie thank you um I'm going to read a couple of a brief sele from the

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book uh let's see how this

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goes some may ask why this book is being why this book is giving what many

4:42

consider a disreputable uh series of films the

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spotlight indeed black sploitation did at times depict unsavory or stereotypical portrayals of black people

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sometimes crossing the line of what was acceptable yeah looking at these films

4:59

with contemporary eyes requires adjusting one's mindset to engage with them in the context of the time in which

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they were made however that does not mean that once's outrage is unwarranted

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if it is still the outcome just keep in mind that said outrage is not a new

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phenomenon as early as September 20th 1972 a mere month after the release of

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Superfly the Associated Press ran an article entitled cores Hollywood to end

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black exploitation movies core the Congress of racial equality is represented in the AP

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article by its chairman Roy Enis at a press conference he demanded that Hollywood should not release any black

5:43

movies unless they had the core seal of approval core will take any action to

5:49

stop these films from being produced and is said at a press conference as Paramount Pictures found out at a

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screening of konkin these actions included violence keep in mind this

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article ran before coffee the Mac Foxy Brown and many other well-known black station films have been released let

6:07

alone made the article cited comeback Charleston Blue and shaft two of the tamest instances of black exploitation

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hell Charleston Blu rated PG inis did mention Superfly as a

6:20

catalyst which makes sense as that's the film that the term black mutation was coined for but more credibly he would

6:28

have uh come sorry but more credibility would have come from a mention of the

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legend of nword Charlie which opened in March of 1972 and had that slur in its

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title we are sick and tired of these bad films being made said Andis destroying

6:43

the black image and producing the wrong kind of symbol for black youth but even his outrage wasn't new

6:51

black intellectualist had taken sweet sweetback's badass song Behind The Woodshed the year before there's no

6:56

mention of that movie in the AP article instead said the reporter listed the command the demands core was attempting

7:02

to impose on Hollywood in said these demands were not censorship but they damn well sounded like it in fact core

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was attempting to do the Hollywood what the Hayes cod had done 40 years prior core wanted a Studios to submit all

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scripts involving black characters to their board which had the right to reject them outright and forc changes to

7:23

be made or films not to be made Court also wanted to pre-edit any movie before it came out just in case something got

7:30

through that they missed not even the hay codes Chief sensor Joe Breen had the

7:35

ability to edit a movie that was already made so inis was clearly Chasing Rainbows here by

7:42

itself core would not have made much of a difference but Junius Griffin the soon to be fired head of the Hollywood

7:49

Beverly Hills NAACP yes Beverly Hills had an NAACP and the corer of black

7:56

exploitation was also on board with stopping these fils from being made he complained that kids should not see

8:01

these films but he made no mention that perhaps this was a parental responsibility not Hollywoods

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additionally Reverend Jesse Jackson said that these movies were a major Target of his push initiative as well these forces

8:15

came together to form the Coalition against black exploitation we want to show the movie

8:20

industry how to make class a black film said inis a man with zero filmmaking

8:26

knowledge whatsoever the one good idea he did have was for a portion of successful black movies profits to go

8:32

toward scholarships for teaching black people how to make films this would have certainly made a difference and allowed

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some form of balancing skilles to occur shockingly Hollywood didn't tell these

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folks to kiss its white ass smacking the crack in November 1972 another AP

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article appeared this one with the title minority groups to screen films his per

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first paragraph read at least at least 10% of the

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audience of all feature film screenings at Major motion picture studios will be minority group members who offer

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criticism of the movies relevancy and credibility the Coalition against black rotation now known as the cab would

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attend all screenings not just of Black theme films and rate them on a 1,00

9:20

point scale the Studios have never allowed themselves to be censored the spokesperson for the cab erroneously

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stated see the haast code for that all we want is to give recommendations to be

9:31

heard the article further stated that talks between the studios and the cab were ongoing with more concessions

9:38

possibly granted both sides agreed there was no way in hell anybody but the studio where the filmmakers is going to

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edit a movie protesting movies was still an option however in response to the

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Cab's demands white film critic Steven Farber wrote a February 1973 article in

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film comic magazine called censorship in California while he agreed that the Civic groups have the right to protest

10:02

the fact that these movies employ so few blacks behind the camera he expressed concern about what the cab considered

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respectable he was no fan of the film innocent company kept holding up Marty Ritz Sounder calling it sanctimonious

10:18

and reminding the readers that unlike Superfly Melinda shf Sweetback or Charleston Blue sounded wasn't directed

10:25

by a black guy it was however written by the black guy wrote Melinda leld theii

10:31

far furly further stresses according to the protest groups the fact that black audiences flock to

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shaft And Superfly is only a symptom of racial oppression in other words black audiences didn't know it was really good

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for them the determination of moralities black or white should never be

10:50

underestimated personally this author agrees with farbor on that point the respectability Negroes who tell blacks

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they need to act in the way to approve they approve and to be accepted

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by the majority are a major thorn in my side so many images and black exportation are scandalous but the cab

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and other more recent people like proven hypocrite Bill Cosby lecturing and

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guilting black people into their version of Conformity is more offensive than any image on the screen plus it's not like

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today where everything under the sun is available at the fingertips of those who probably shouldn't have access to it due

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to their age in the blast ration era one had to either physically go to a theater

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or wait until the movie showed up on TV in a Cho the bits format the cab gave no

11:40

responsibility to parents in terms of policing the habits of their kids it's the same old argument who protect the

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children that shouldn't be a movie's job this author was too young to

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remember anything about the cab growing up but he does remember two talk show appearances by the late Roy inis that

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ended violently in the first in his knocked over Reverend Al Sharpton on repugnant talk show host Martin dowy

12:05

Jr's show in the second he contributed to the near Riot that resulted in

12:10

Heraldo rera getting his nose broken by a chair on his equally repugnant talk show in both of those instances in

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looked like black space Asian character so much for respectability you can't

12:23

beat him join [Music] them there's

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me while that's up there let me read you

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this every genre has it Citizen Cane that is the greatest movie in its Cannon

12:41

Superfly fits the bill for black exploitation it screenplay by Philip Fenty is tightly constructed with

12:47

Hustler characters breathing life into that one final score Trope commun commonly found in heist movies it is

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very well acted with few exceptions the reviews are better than most of the films that preceded and succeeded it the

13:01

soundtrack became a best-selling classic soul album and his fashion sense inspired by Nate ad Adams costume

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choices and the actor's own closets started a trend so widespread that

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influenced this book's author's mother who dressed him in a rust color Superfly coat and hat Ensemble when he was 3

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years old he looked

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fabulous one final thing

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so when did black exploitation officially begin there are several possible answers to that question as

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we'll soon see the term itself was coined after Superfly by Junius Griffin the head of the NAACP in Los Angeles but

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was used to describe the entire set of movies released by that point this is well before many blast ration movies

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have been released the era had yet to produce Pam gria tetrology or any of the films featuring the trio of machismo

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known as Brown Williamson Kelly Black Hill hadn't even bitten anybody yet the

14:03

Mac hadn't unleashed the power of the player's ball nor had Dolomite uttered one wrong that leaves a few options

14:12

since sha the shaft marked the entry point what about sweet sweetback's badass song Love van pee had a fit every

14:19

time anyone referred to his film as quote a blast rotation move end quote technically he's correct for if we were

14:26

to operate solely on Logistics utation did not exist until Junius Griffith coined it in

14:32

1972 that's far from a satisfactory or definitive answer arguments abound for

14:38

the true heir of black station's origin story I think the better question to ask is what was the film that most influen

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black exploitation shaft and cotton comes to Harlem set the standards for cops detectives in the genre coughing

14:51

and clear Patrick Jones uh ushered in the era of badass black heroins bucking

14:57

the preacher expanded the market for black westerns that would fall under the

15:02

black station Banner but many of the films that came in the latter half of the era tried to emulate the grit and

15:08

salaciousness of sweet sweetback's badass song while I believe that van pee's movie is the era's most

15:14

influential film I'd like to make the case that the blueprint for black ration was drawn three years earlier by uptight

15:21

Jules daon and Ruby D's 1968 take on Liam M fl's novel The

15:27

Informer in the black station documentary is that black enough for you director Elvis Mitchell makes a brief

15:33

reference to the film uptight the the brief reference that ties uptight to the black station era

15:39

which made me even more confident in my own theorizing the film features so many of the elements that are associated with

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black exploitation and it does some of them better than the films that succeeded it the script by daon D and

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her co-star Julian Mayfield handled a black militant angle with a rare similitude I can never say that word

15:58

unmatched by any film before or since Mayfield and future black vitation Legends Ramy St Jack and Max Julian play

16:05

this plotline with such realism that the viewer can feel the tension anger and the violence boiling over on screen upus

16:13

other ingredients at the black station Cannon for starters the scor is by Booker T Jones who plays it with his

16:19

band the MGs though it's not the first score by a black composer the work of Quincy Jones and Duke Ellington preceded

16:26

it is the first one to lean into the traing of Soul music Booker T and the MGs were were

16:32

artists on Stacks the same label that employed Chef's composer Isaac Hayes the

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soundtrack's well most well-known composition time is tight is a play on the film's titular adjective in a rare

16:45

vocal performance Jones sings the film's hauntingly beautiful theme song Johnny I love you over John and Faith hu's

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animated opening credits amid their images the hu pay homage to photos by Gordon Parks we've got a soul song over

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a funky opening credits add to that the location of uptight Cleveland Ohio one

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of the northern cities to have a quote Hood in this case it's called the Huff as Harlem Detroit Chicago and Oakland

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would be in Black rotation films the Huff is another character in this film it's in the scene of BR police brutality

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and uprisings and serves as the final resting place for more than one of the film's protagonists D and shot on location this

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is aie Davis the D for comes to Har in keeping with the source material 1935

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is the Informer which when directed John Ford's first Oscar uh uptight as two

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characters coincidentally mirror the types of heroes normally found in Black spit there's tank Mayfield the

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conflicted man pulled into a situation he needs to overcome to get out of the game and there's Johnny Julian his

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militant best friend and the subject of Johnny I love you a man of action willing to use violence to achieve his

17:58

goal yet it still has a soft spot for his mother Julian will play A variation on both of these tropes in the mac and

18:05

his mother in that film and this one is paid by why I need a more there's even a white sidekick SL Ally and uptight

18:12

though this film handles him quite differently than black sploitation films would do later here he's the lawyer and

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friend of BG St Jack and one of his best performances revolutionaries group's leader once Johnny returns to oops

18:26

telling my time's up but almost done once Johnny returns to town and the

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group starts planning more acts of Disobedience B dismisses the white guy effectively kicking him out of the

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picture thank you for your service he basically says but it's Black Folk Business now let's that forget there's

18:44

Lori a main squeeze for tank played by D unlike many Blas vitation women before

18:50

Pam Greer her role is more than just a side piece she and John are the only characters tank ever loved and when he

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becomes an inform for the police against BG's group The Fallout from his betrayal reverberates through their face their

19:03

Fates there's also a scene recreated more comically in 1974 as Claudine where

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Lori is confronted by her welfare worker at home Rosy Brown the soon to be ly Byron Jones at liberation of lbby Jones

19:16

plays Daisy a self-proclaimed n-word and F-word though the film throws these

19:21

slurs around Daisy has given more agency than most homosexual characters of the era Brown's flamboyance is not a done

19:28

it's quite convincing as a specific type of gay man however he's still villainous

19:34

and ultimately weak willed something that would characterize several gay characters in Black spectation the one

19:40

thing that uptight truly has over the black station films I believe in influenc was his sense of urgency and

19:45

his Unapologetic black rage made just a few months after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr the film uses that

19:53

event as the backdrop for its plot dason opens the film with several minutes of new new real footage of Dr King's

19:59

funeral and procession his voice is heard in speeches as shots of the Huff appear the character of tank can't

20:05

perform the task BG and Johnny wanted to do because he's gotten drunk over MLK's

20:10

death with the Watts Uprising and other more recent rebellions freshen the minds of the audience and the filmmakers

20:17

uptight is able to convey that time in history when the wounds are still fresh even sweet sweetback's badass song the

20:25

film that comes closest to that level of rage is working from more of a distance which makes the film feel less raw than

20:31

it does in D this movie regardless it's worth contemplating whether uptight is

20:36

truly the first black expectation film or merely the genre's first and most important

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[Applause] architect thank you thank you very much

20:52

OD um please have a seat uh Candace will you join us um here here yeah and while

20:59

Candace is approaching um I want to OD I I love your sense of humor you are

21:06

hilarious you are brilliant thank you you are shy I've gotten to I'm a nervous

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wreck don't be nervous um I've gotten to know OD a little bit uh during the time

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we've been preparing for this program it's been a a true pleasure um and it's also been a pleasure reading the book uh

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OD provided Advanced copies of the book to both Candace and me before was published in late January um it's a

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beautiful book um and thank you so much for writing this important book Thank

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you and we have copies of the book available for sale and there'll be a book signing after this evening's

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program so I'm going to turn it over to you Candace congratulations on the book um I

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had the privilege of reading it uh as Susan said and it is so rich with detail

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and such historical knowledge um um one of the lines that stood out to me in the book was you said that black

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exploitation was in my blood growing up um and we can clearly see it here and the outfit you know what I'm saying got

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the r jacket on channeling your superfly I'm three years old in that

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picture can you talk about the impact black exploitation had on you um growing

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up so I I was one of six kids of that little era generation they were three

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boys and three girls I was the fourth one um and my older cousins female

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cousins would go to see Foxy Brown oh Pam Greer movies and they would take us

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sometimes we weren't supposed to go to these movies I'm clearly too young to see Foxy Brown but they would feel they

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would come out of the theater they want to play Pam Greer but they wanted to act like Pam Greer and it was a Sensi of

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empowerment in that and I saw them and I saw the power they felt from Pam Greer

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being the hero of a movie for Star artist and also justest that she was just such a badass for me it wasn't just

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Pam Greer My First Crush but it was also Jim Kelly I saw a double feature of into

23:05

the dragon and U Black Belt Jones so this is around the same time I remember which one I saw first but Jim Kelly and

23:11

his enormous afro I mean just like the power behind and he was doing martial arts and he and Bruce Lee were kicking

23:18

behind and I was jealous of his afro because mine always looked bad and I

23:23

just felt like I was a be a kid that got beat up every day uh I learned how to

23:28

fight back and watching these movies made me feel like a sense of power that I could be like Jim Kelly I could be

23:35

like Jim Kelly and then I'm going go outside and the bully just still who my behind but that sense of power I I saw

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that I didn't see that on television because there were no black empowered people in fact The Jeffersons the first

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time I saw a black person I wanted to be on television because George was rich he was a you know a bigot and all that but

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he was rich and so I saw that I didn't want to be you know JJ I mean that was my

24:00

[Music] existence when we talk about representation in terms of black exploitation it kind of ju deposes what

24:07

we see black people portrayed as um historically From Slavery to Jim Crow to

24:12

reconstruction we have these stereotypes that are very dehumanizing yes um so can you talk about how that racism trickled

24:20

down to Hollywood how black exploitation fought against it well keep in mind that

24:26

before Sydney he came on a scene 1950 in a movie called No Way Out which I highly

24:31

recommend it's a Noir it's I've never seen him more Angry in a movie that he

24:37

didn't direct uh and it was his first film before that you had mamy you had

24:42

what what Donald ble called Tom's Coons mad mamies and Bucks the stereotypes of black people you saw in films you had

24:49

Willie best you had you know man Mor and these other people and then Sydney came along and he brought some nobility to it

24:55

but then they just kept he couldn't do many things he couldn't play Denzel's character in Training Day because he was

25:02

basically representing all of us until 1972 buck in the preacher so with these

25:08

movies blast movies the thing that I think started making people enjoy them

25:14

was that as melv man people was pointed outet seatback no one thought his character was going to survive till the

25:20

end of the movie because if you were rebellious even Sydney you died you

25:25

never got away with any kind of crime or you never got it one over on the man and so these movies presented that they also

25:32

presented the neighborhood as I said aie Davis shot K comes to Harlem in Harlem and that was one of the first times you

25:37

saw Harlem on the screen in all its beauty and all its you know this repair but if you lived in Harlem or if you

25:44

lived in a hood like I did that wasn't too far from Harlem um you saw that on the screen and you felt seen you felt

25:51

represented you know there were drug dealers in my neighborhood there were pimps in my neighborhood there were sex

25:57

workers in my neighborhood they also were cops like coffinet and Gravedigger Jones in my neighborhood and nurses like

26:03

coffee and people who wanted to just make a living a black living but you never got to see that and so these

26:09

movies for better and For Worse put that on the screen and you know representation is power even if

26:14

sometimes is it's a double-edged sword so going to the movie as a little boy and seeing my neighborhood on the

26:21

screen was in an incredible feeling to a kid well exploitation um came right

26:28

after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and also Incorporated the Black Power movement and these themes of black

26:34

socioeconomic struggle um can you talk about whether it's from cotton Crums to

26:40

Harlem or Shaft or Superfly what makes these movies classic black exploitation

26:46

films well shaft shaft Coming Out of Time Square at the beginning of the movie It's kind of the epitome of the

26:53

attitude of black vitation you have a cool theme song you have a sve hero

26:58

coming out of the The Vines as they called them in the 70s their clothes his attitude walking down the street the

27:04

fact that he is the hero of the film the smartest person you know a bad mother shut your mouth in the movie they tell

27:09

you in the opening credits that you were not going to see you know a downtrodden brother mhm and that played on once that

27:17

happened you couldn't you really couldn't knock off a black character

27:23

Black Caesar famously since it was remake of Little Caesar Larry Cohen had Fred Williams's character killed at the

27:29

end because that's what happens at the end of L Caesar and the audience rebelled so much that Larry Cohen

27:35

literally went into the projection booth and cut the ending off the movie so whenever it went to every other place in

27:40

the world after its Premiere Fred Williams's character didn't die you couldn't kill these characters anymore

27:46

because you know black people always the the sacrificial lamb Dirty Harry you know do you feel lucky punk he's poting

27:51

the gun in a black person you know that's a far cry from Pam Greer pulling the gun out of her afro and shooting

27:56

somebody very far you know very very far and I think what what uptight does right

28:02

and what a lot of these black tiue movies does does do right is the militant aspect of it you know shafia Ben Buford and his militant little group

28:09

they didn't really want to say the Black Panthers unless you have something like the Mac which actually had the Black Panther involvement you got kind of a

28:15

watered down version of militancy but at least it was there yeah so I mean that's

28:21

better than nothing I mean I know it's crumbs and what have you but we're talking 1972 you can't talk about black

28:27

sploitation without talking about the backlash these films received um and one

28:33

of the most controversial if not the most controversial film was 1972 Superfly starring Ron um O'Neal so I

28:40

didn't know this before I started reading your book but the NAACP the southern Christian leadership conference

28:45

in the National Urban League joined to form the Coalition against black exploitation and core did too core was

28:51

part of it and push all of every every black group with an

28:56

acronym ever they're all in there um so we're going to play a clip actually of Superfly but before we do um they

29:03

released NAACP and corisa statement about the movie it said the movie

29:08

epitomizes without any hint of Retribution the absolute worst images of blacks it's an Insidious film which

29:15

portrays the black community at its worst Superfly glorifies the use of cocaine cast out upon the capability of

29:21

law enforcement officials and cast blacks in roles which glorify dope pushers pimps and GR theft that's not

29:29

not true but you guys will see it and you oh let's let them make the decision

29:34

and then I have a comment about them actually saying something about the cops we'll come back to

29:50

that this dude is bad and he ain't just fly he's Super Fly

29:58

yeah Super Fly when it comes to women they come to him but it's still not

30:05

enough he wants a big score a million in cash yeah the big one this is a chance

30:13

and I want to take it now before I have to kill

30:19

somebody before somebody ises me what kind of money are we talking

30:26

about that much I want his out

30:31

[Music]

30:46

working backward now that I took all this chance for nothing and I go back to being nothing working some J job for

30:53

Chum chains day after day look that's all I'm supposed to do the they going to have to kill me cuz that ain't enough a

30:59

I clean bad machine super cool super mean dealing good for the man Super Fly

31:05

here I stand secret stash heavy bread badest [ __ ] in the bed I'm your

31:11

pusher man can a Superfly Harlem dude beat the

31:19

system he's got a plan to Stick It To The Man He's super Hood super high super

31:28

dude Super [Music]

31:50

Fly yesterday in Chicago um The Music Box Theater showed it and I pointed out

31:57

that that um Curtis Mayfield said this movie is in essence a commercial for

32:03

cocaine in fact there literally is a commercial volane in the middle of the movie This Montage of people enjoying their product so what Curtis Mayfield

32:10

does and why I said this was the Citizen Cane of black exploitation is because what this movie has that most other

32:16

bation movies doesn't have is the complexity there's a moral it forces you to make a choice if you are for young

32:24

blood priest he is basically going to plot is he's going to sell 30 keys of cocaine so he can make a cool million

32:31

dollar 972 money and retire from the game it's the same old kind of high story I want one last score before I get

32:37

out the issue is though that he's selling this to black people in the hood

32:43

mostly so if you are for him you are basically buying into his capitalist

32:49

migraine Nightmare and if you're against him you're basically are on the side of the white cops that want a piece of the

32:56

action and are actually holding him down to making him think he has to do this and the movie does not make a decision

33:02

it is shockingly immoral however Curtis Mayfield whose soundtrack made more money than Superfly the movie did by the

33:09

way on the soundtrack Curtis Mayfield is telling you something else there's a narration a counter narration going on

33:16

that he worked into the music and into the lyrics and so on where basically you're seeing all this cool stuff the

33:23

younger priest is doing but Curtis is reminding you that Freddy is dead and you want to be a junkie wow remember

33:29

Freddy's remember Freddy's Dead and push your man the little song where you see him singing is a boast the only person

33:36

that gets off gets ahead is The Pusher in that song he's basically telling you

33:41

he owns you so Curtis is working both sides of the street here but what he's

33:48

doing is he's offering you or warning you about what was going to happen this

33:54

this is not going to have happy ending but the movie is all cool and you know great fashion and Ron O'Neal Who said he

34:01

was so upset about people blaming him for this movie he said they blamed for everything but Nixon's

34:08

election he made a sequel to the superfly called Superfly TNT which is written by Alex Haley and is Robert Gom

34:16

Benson's debut and it's a God awful film um he basically turned Superfly into

34:22

some black African militant but people that had gone to see the original Superfly wanted to see him you know

34:29

having sex with women and snor and cope meanwhile he's preaching to you and you know in in Africa no one wanted to see

34:35

that so it was an incredibly large flop so that was that was the downside he he

34:40

tried to he was blamed for so much the Coalition really went after him that he

34:46

tried to make a a you know a corrective and it didn't make any money and and that kind of cost him a lot of his

34:52

career for a while you know he's Whitley's dad on a different world remember oh that's right so he his

34:59

career didn't die he just would show up every so often and you know he was Whitley's dad I always like to point

35:05

that out to remind people on the flip side of this we have 1974 Foxy Brown starring Pam Guru so you

35:12

have Superfly being so controversial this bad portrayal of black people then you have Foxy Brown which is credited as

35:18

one of the first films that really showcase women protagonist doing action in movies so we're going to play a clip

35:25

of that now and then we'll get into it

35:34

okay when Foxy Brown comes to town when all the brothers gather around cuz she

35:40

can really shake them down Fox fo Pam Greer that one chick hit squad who

35:48

creamed you as coffee is back to do a job on the mob as Foxy Brown you tell me

35:55

who you want done and I'll do do the hell out of it a chick with Drive who don't take no

36:04

Jive that woman she's crazy there's no telling what she'll

36:09

do she's sweet brown sugar with A Touch of Spice if you see a man anywhere send

36:15

him in because I do need a man and murder if you don't treat a nice sounds

36:21

like a public menace show do Foxy's got guts no ifs ands or butts I better warn

36:29

you I got a black belt in karate and I got my black belt in bar

36:34

stools she won't Burge when she carries a grudge I want justice for all of them

36:41

whose lives are bought and sold so that a few big shots can climb up on their

36:46

backs sister I think what you're asking for is [Music]

36:51

Revenge so there ain't no hope for dudes who deal dope I swear where baby I don't

36:57

know what you're talking about we're going to kill ourselves a couple of

37:05

[Music] [ __ ] have no fear Pam Greer is here as

37:17

Foxy Foxy [Music]

37:25

Brown so this is supposed to be a sequel to coffeee so coffee was the movie that basically put Pam Greer on the map she

37:31

had done some films before this and coffee was the first time you had a black protagonist a female black

37:39

protagonist because black station at this point been mostly male the women in these movies didn't do anything but

37:44

either have sex with the heroin the hero or bringing some information or die where Pam Greer now she is the lead and

37:52

and she's not coffee is one of the most violent of all the black station movie she's one of the meanest protagonists in

37:59

in Black vitation so they wanted to give her this power and Foxy Brown was the sequel but the interesting thing about

38:05

coffee and Foxy Brown is that Superfly was technically a a pro drug movie I

38:10

guess if you want to call it that whereas coffee her the whole plot is Pam GRE is going out on the street and

38:16

killing drug dealers because they hooked her the sister on drugs so they had a very strong anying drug message which is

38:22

also new for black exploitation so not only do you have a powerful black woman

38:27

you also have this anti drug message that carries forth in Foxy Brown and and then Pam Greer the little trivia note

38:33

the next movie She Made after Foxy Brown Friday Foster the first black comic book

38:39

character isn't blade it's F it's Friday Foster Friday Foster was drawn in the

38:45

Chicago Tribune in the 70s and they made a movie so their first black comic adaptation is technically Friday Foster

38:51

so Pam Greer got to do that not only was she's the first really hero female hero

38:57

of almost any type you had Angie Dickinson before that in a similar expectation type film but it wasn't

39:03

common until Pam Greer showed up and then all of a sudden every woman had to be beaten the hell out of everybody in

39:10

movies instead of just being a victim so she kind of changed that and brought

39:15

that to Black exitation and she never lost a fight the last movie She Made

39:20

before this she was eaten by a mountain lion and the mountain lion was the last

39:27

thing to beat Pam gri in the movie after coffee nobody would take you know she

39:33

had to survive to the end of the movie she had the be the baddest person in the picture and then you also had Cleopatra

39:39

Jones the year before so the cleopatras they made two clear pck Jones movies

39:44

Tamara Dobson who once held the record for the tallest woman in film action movies she was 6'2 and according to Cle

39:51

Pat Jones all of it was Dynamite that same year know he had C P

39:56

Patrick Jones and coffee that was that double Wham me of these statuesque black women who were CIA a agents or

40:03

Vigilantes you know taking names and so that changed the blast vation trajectory

40:10

you really just couldn't have a a woman character even Dolomite you know lady Reed's character has some agency in that

40:17

so we get to the late 1970s and the early 1980s and black exploitation kind of just dies out and can you talk about

40:24

it you talk about it in the book in the epilogue about the demise of the genre but can you address that here was it the

40:29

backlash in terms of representation or were just people tired of them altogether well there's I had a

40:35

different Theory when I started writing the book I had a different Theory than the one I came to in the end I thought

40:40

it was this television because television was free back then and there were more black people on TV that was kind of the issue they weren't black

40:46

people on television so these movies were you know big because you had to go to the theater to see this but they

40:52

started putting on sord and son and and Jefferson's and shaft had a TV series

40:57

which lasted seven episodes God help us uh and there were other Positive Black

41:03

characters or at least black characters more on the screen and then jaws and Star Wars came out movies of no black

41:10

people in them whatsoever and Hollywood started thinking well black people are going to go see a movie with no black people in it you know we should make

41:17

more of those which is kind of ridiculous considering that black people were doing this before and then Elvis Mitchell's idea

41:23

was that the whiz killed black sploitation because the whiz cost $30 million and it didn't make its money

41:30

back although I don't know anybody that doesn't love the whz that's my age in black and there's a lot of us apparently

41:36

not enough to make the $30 million that would cost back and you know how Hollywood is you know you're a woman you're black you're gay you make a movie

41:42

and it's a flop you don't get another chance to make a movie to kind of fix that you're a white guy you get whatever

41:48

you want so I think that combination but I think the whiz they threw all this money at it was the biggest the most

41:55

expensive Black Moon movie you know lady s the blues cost money Motown was behind that and it was a hit it was you know D

42:02

Russ got nominated for an oscar but the it didn't cost $30 million and so when that happened they

42:09

basically black people disappeared unless you're a Richard prior or Eddie Murphy or if you were like a rapper at

42:15

the beginning of rap you know like Beat Street and break into electric Baloo you weren't on the screen think

42:21

about it you know until she's got to have it there was that whole black way new wav in ' 86 and going forward before

42:29

that how many movies outside of the ones I just mentioned that had rappers in them that were more like lowbudget the

42:35

next era of lowbudget underground Cinema for black people did you see uh multiple

42:41

black people in the movie you know Eddie Murphy didn't make a movie for black people until Coming to America so that they basically they were

42:49

punishing us because they figured that we would go see whatever mhm just like

42:56

before mhm I think that's kind of what did it in but uh also I think people

43:01

were getting a little tired of something the movies were losing quality whenever something is underground and it becomes mainstream it gets destroyed and I think

43:08

that's what really happened the movies they started making copies very very inferior copies of things you know Eddie

43:14

Murphy says and Dolomite is my name you know these movies have no titties no funny and no Kung Fu I love that

43:20

line and he's right they started making all these preaching movies like a piece of the action and black people didn't

43:25

want to see that they got preaching on Sunday at church so I think it was a combination of things but the bottom

43:31

line is financially Hollywood did not think that we were you know viable do we

43:38

have time for one more question um as a veteran film critic what is your opinion

43:44

on current black filmmakers finding new ways to tell black stories well I'm all

43:49

for it but I'm afraid because I've been down this road the older you get the more you realize that life is you start

43:55

living life over are thinking you're crazy you know I believe through Julie Dash and all these things they're saying

44:00

this is the new world day for black people I think black directors and producers and people have more power

44:06

than they did in 1973 but at the same time it seems hard Ian Spike Lee has to fight to get a

44:12

movie made I mean it's [ __ ] Le there are things I am enjoying I me I love movies

44:18

that that take a different approach like they clone Tyrone which is kind of a horror and uh black station hybrid but

44:25

actually had a message that was a very serious message underneath it and some of the you know par parotic things like

44:31

black dynamite and stuff going on and then you have something like Jordan Peele who it just has gets a blank check

44:37

I mean I just love that he can just make whatever he wants and I find that to be fascinating he brings black people in

44:43

and gives them training people of color in and allows them to be trained to do it Melvin man pees did the same thing

44:50

with with Sweet Sweetback he had to say it was a porn because the union didn't have any minorities in it and y wouldn't

44:56

work porn that was the way he got a multi culty C uh crew you can't bring

45:02

anybody you can't learn if no one's going willing to give you a job and so I I'm happy that more black and brown

45:09

creatives are bringing in or black and brown creatives and telling different types of stories and and promoting

45:15

different types of stories and I have hope but I'm just still I'm jaded I'm burn I've been burnt too many times too

45:22

many times so it's kind of like I'm cautiously optimistic to use that term

45:27

but I'm like talk to me again in 5 years where where will we be and on that Noe You' like to open it

45:34

up to questions from the audience so as well as those watching on

45:47

YouTube oh I've not read the book but I'm

45:53

interested in the music aspect of it because was uh the music in all these films uh it seems to me was music and uh

46:01

was ceiling and floor and so I'd really like to hear more of your talking about it as content as you know the scene um

46:09

because it's so interesting and I just brought back a lot listening to uh Curtis Mayfield Curtis Mayfield doesn't

46:17

get enough credit for this so I'm going to give him his credit I'm giv him a flow sorry Curtis is no longer with us

46:22

but he without Superfly the soundtrack album which served as a

46:29

marketing melv people started this he did sweet s back and album with every when a fire on it and he used the album

46:36

as marketing so sweet seatack was not just an album was also marketing Superfly the same way although Curtis

46:42

could sing Melvin couldn't And Superfly like I said the album made more money than the movie but the album came out

46:49

before the movie and that's what got people to go without Superfly without Curtis and making Claudine and spar

46:56

and and uh let's do it again and all these other short eyes all the soundtracks that he did there'd be no

47:01

Saturday Night Fever soundtrack there'd be no Grease soundtrack there'd be no Flash Dance soundtrack and by the way

47:07

Flash Dance is the movie that made Hollywood believe every single film has to have an album but Curtis and Melvin

47:14

started that and Motown became the label of black citation because they knew even if the movie was a flop they could get a

47:21

hit song out of it they could get a Hit album out of it cuz you know we buy records and you know my my parents had I

47:28

still have my parents shaft album that they bought in 1971 I have it and so

47:33

that that musical element was always one of the big things about I have a list of

47:39

top 10 black expectation songs in the back of the book I'm sure it's controversial but um I had to include

47:44

that because you can't talk about these movies without talking about their music sometimes that was the best thing in the movie but we don't get the credit as

47:52

usual uh we don't get the credit for you know as as cev little says in blaze and Sal they bet they w't give me credit so

47:59

they didn't give Curtis credit for that but he did and black station films served as music Movie music as marketing

48:06

before any white film did I have sha too but I'm from Memphis

48:11

ah so that makes sense another question um we have one

48:17

from YouTube Someone wants to know what your favorite film is oh my favorite black sitation movie that's hard I mean

48:25

I I I guess I would have to say shaft only because when I was a kid I wanted to be shaft I wanted to girl when I

48:31

leave come out of the station on Time Square and granted it doesn't look like it does 1971 but I remember it I

48:37

Remember the Time Square that was of the era of black vitation the Funtime Square

48:42

uh whenever I come out of the station I hear shaft like shaft was like the epitome of

48:49

cool for me when I was writing the book I went to Sha's house which is at 55 Jane Street in the village and I just

48:56

wanted to soak up this environment I wanted to be as cool as Rich round the man he just passed away round Tre just

49:02

passed away and I I think that may my favorite movie but I have other movies I love coffee I love Foxy Brown I love

49:09

Sugar Hill a horror movie with Marky Bay a seeking revenge on the man through

49:15

Voodoo with Mother Jefferson as the voodoo priestess zarak cly by the way research

49:22

her she is one of the great black um

49:28

like playright she was what she did so much for black actors and for black theater by the time she got to the

49:34

Jefferson and we all knew who she was she was in her 80s she was known for her elocution she taught you know how to

49:41

speak people how to speak that's why she has such a crazy proper voice in a Jeff even though she's always using it as

49:47

she's drunk but she was one of the most fascinating people that I kind of discovered when I was researching the

49:53

books I only knew her his mother Jefferson I never noticed she had an entire 50-year history in the black

49:59

theater before that any more

50:08

questions oh sorry thoughts on gangster rappers who are now part of the uh TV

50:15

and film industry IC tea IC tea this is funny everything is tied together um

50:23

they remade Superfly not the W in 2018 in 1990 they made Superfly it was called

50:29

The Return of Superfly and it had the black dud from Days of Our Lives played priest and Curtis Mayfield and IC tea

50:36

did the score for that movie and so you know rappers Foxy Brown Biggie Smalls

50:43

yeah you know these names they came from rap you know and then also rap a lot of

50:48

they sampled a lot of black station music you know James Brown's music and then for Black Caesar is one of the most

50:55

sample you know cuts for rap um so I I mean it TI it all it's all tied together

51:01

I mean it's they kind of and then again between black new wave and Blas rtation

51:07

there was Crush Grove and the disorderly all these movies where the rappers got

51:13

on the screen and I was a teenager at the time so I was just in love with these types of things so it's all of a

51:18

piece I think everything kind kind of ties together and you explore it in the book as well yeah and so gangster rap

51:24

was just another element of it's almost like the sweet sweet back or almost like signifying like the signifying monkey

51:30

Dolomite type thing it it kind of got I think away from its Origins and became

51:36

again once something becomes mainstream it is destroyed but I think that's kind of they're all of a piece they're tied

51:42

together have time for one more question we have a another question yeah this is

51:47

another YouTube question I was surprised to see that Gordon Willis was the director of Superfly um are there some of these

51:55

black explo exploitation M movies that are particularly well-made technically

52:00

well Gordon Parks that was Gordon Parks junor Gordon Parks his son directed Superfly he directed thomasine and

52:05

Bushra which is a black Bonnie and Cloud which is very very good with Max Julian and Vanetta McGee uh Gordon Parks senior

52:11

directed shaft obviously and Gordon Parks was the photographer and so was Gordon Parks Junior and some of the

52:17

movies look really good and you had Lucian Ballard who was a cinematographer

52:22

in the 30s he shot through the hard way and shot a couple of other films you have Michael Khan who became Spielberg's

52:29

editor he did four black cation movies uh he did spookly St by the door which is a great movie it was so controversial

52:37

the government pulled it from theaters because it was a recipe it taught you how to be a black revolutionary because

52:44

it was written by a black CIA agent the book was he also did the screenplay and it was so dangerous to the government

52:51

they yank the movie so there there are s several movies that are very well made and there

52:56

are several movies that look like trash but I like them anyway you like them anyway

53:06

um oh thank you um I had two questions but my first question was what was your

53:11

process like writing your book and what is the biggest takeaway you want audience to remember from reading your

53:17

book well I that's I'll ask a second question first the biggest takeaway I want is I want people to realize that

53:23

for better and for worse because I don't I mean there I take some of these movies to the Woodshed and I I criticize

53:30

several elements of them so it's not just this Love Fest of me just going on and on about how much how great they are

53:36

I think the takeaway from it is that this was an eror and just like any other era it influences the movies that were

53:43

made and you have to look at it from what was going on what was changing and

53:49

brought these movies in and also the bation technically is in dead you see so

53:54

many tropes and elements in movies of the day and Tarantino of course does it all the time but not just Tarantino I

54:00

think black filmmakers do the same thing they add little kind of um you know like little like signposts or maybe like uh

54:07

know little things that you would be able to pick up on immediately that come from black vitation so the take away from the book is I just wanted to talk

54:14

about the history of black vitation and how it shaped the little black kid me how what was the because the Coalition

54:21

against black was saying these are harmful movies and I wanted to look at that I wanted to look at what I got out

54:26

of it pro and con as far as the process of the book I seen all these movies as a

54:32

kid and as a teenager I worked in a video store so we had black citation and porn kept us

54:38

open those to that and and kung fu movies so you know we had all that that

54:44

kept the store open and so I would watch them as a teenager so I was watching him as a kid watching him as a teenager now

54:50

I'm watching him as an old man and I wanted to write down what I got out of it Pro incom because a lot of times

54:57

these movies was giving you a message about what black masculinity what black femininity was and sometimes it was a

55:04

good message and sometimes it was not a good message so that's kind of what I wanted to look at it from the

55:10

perspective of it's not just black spt's history in a way it's my history it's your history as well we have time for a

55:17

couple more questions we have another YouTube question who are some of your favorite actors and actresses who you

55:24

feel had the greatest impact Ramy St Jack doesn't get enough credit um he was

55:30

a great actor and he they made a movie uh there were several black versions of

55:36

classic movies there was a black version of the Get Carter called Hitman that's the movie where Pam GRE gets eaten by a

55:41

mountain lion there was a black version of the ashole Jungle called Cool Breeze

55:47

which has Ramis and Jack in it and thas rasala another great actor and all these actors it's funny is you would see them

55:54

on on television in the 70s and even going forward you know Everybody Hates Chris is almost like a you know a

56:01

chronopia of old black actors showing up in in roles Antonio Vargas for example

56:07

you know it shows up in those things so uh Pam Greer obviously because just because of her power and because she was

56:15

a star you know and and Fred Williamson I mean he was a really bad director but

56:21

he had presence I mean he could play a role he could play Black Caesar and then he could play a almost comic role and

56:27

take a hard ride and he had a lot more Talent than be in front of the camera

56:32

and presentence then we give him credit for now behind the camera is another story but but he directed I got to give

56:39

him credit he got a lot of his movies made he was an independent he made he directed his films he was in them and

56:47

they made money and he raised money to make those movies but I thought that he was and I was going through all these

56:52

movies again and I wrote about 84 movies in this book I really was impressed by

56:58

by him by by Fred Williamson last

57:06

question hi um so I was just thinking about uh the movie Coming to America you just mentioned it briefly before and I

57:14

was wondering because I I was thinking about how that movie was praised for um celebrating the African

57:20

Heritage um in the movie but it I remember that it was also criticized because uh from from the African

57:27

Community from some African communities because uh the misrepresentation um of

57:34

Africans in the movie so I was wondering what your opinion was about that you know Coming to America is an interesting

57:41

movie I I wouldn't say that it was in any way accurate about the African immigrant experience but what Coming to

57:47

America does that I think is genius is that Eddie Murphy Prince aing is the

57:55

outside he's coming to a black neighborhood that you would see like

58:01

she's coming to Queens and a lot of black folks myself included saw that neighborhood we we we

58:08

recognize the Jerry curls and recognize the the knockoff McDonald's you know there and my

58:16

neighborhood there was a kentaki fried chicken it was probably good too it was

58:21

damn good anyway and so what Coming to America does I

58:26

think his genius is that Eddie Murphy is like representing the white audience coming

58:33

into a neighborhood that we know very well so we're already automatically laughing and Eddie is responding to this

58:39

new world I think that kind of plays into the Immigrant experience of coming

58:45

into a new place but I don't think it does Justice to someone like a king's experience it's

58:51

a fairy tale you know but it's primarily isn't to show his he's the straight man

58:58

in Coming to America the regular black neighborhood is kind of like the the

59:03

universe that he's coming to he's an alien coming to this foreign planet that we all know and love so it's not really

59:10

the Immigrant experience it's him the the America imposing its will on

59:17

him so I would agree that that the criticism was probably very valid about this is not a representation of African

59:23

immigrants but I don't think that's the movie's intention we have time for just one

59:30

more this is also from YouTube do you believe that black actors have a responsibility to present only the

59:37

positive that that's that's a great question to close out on Norma R Jones wrote an article 1976 that asked that

59:45

exact question can black art be free as long as we are oppressed

59:50

people and I i' like I'm not going to spoil the book can tell you what her conclusion was she was writing about

59:57

Sweet Sweetback specifically and How Sweet Sweetback is a myth making kind of film but she asked that question and

1:00:04

it's a valid question but I think it's an unfair question it's a loaded question it's a very loaded question

1:00:10

because again it's always like we have to take it upon ourselves to educate you to We Can't be you know we can't be

1:00:18

complicated that's what was Sydney's problem until he started directing his own movies he had to be this noble black person that was completely faultless and

1:00:25

no such person I come from a predominantly black family let me tell you let me tell you D Ain

1:00:32

perfect so I think it's an unfair question but it's a question that we have to wrestle with I feel like it is

1:00:40

it prohibits you as an artist because you're constantly thinking I have to represent black people we're not a

1:00:46

monolith so you can't really represent all of us I can this book represents me

1:00:52

as what my opinion is but there might people who completely disagree with my opinion I am not speaking for black

1:00:57

people I'm speaking for this one black person but we always have to be the person to speak for all black people and

1:01:03

that that drives me crazy because it's not fair but it it's it's a it's it's the cross we have to

1:01:09

bear so I mean I don't I don't have my answer is no but I know that that is not

1:01:18

the answer that you know that's that's not the definitive answer that's not the answer that we can have to go with it's

1:01:23

your answer so yes we do huh it's your answer so yes we do yeah we do we do OD this has been so much fun

1:01:31

um we selling black Caesars and Foxy cleopatras after the event thank you so much for joining us um live as well as

1:01:39

on YouTube thank you so much I want to Candace I want to thank you Candace

1:01:46

has traveled from Chicago Illinois to be here tonight thank you for that uh thank

1:01:51

you so much for your beautiful moderation Candace and I have had the privilege of

1:01:57

working on a number of programs together so thank you Odie thank you for your

1:02:02

heart your humor your Brilliance um and thank you

1:02:08

for writing this book congratulations to you um and thank you to the audience our

1:02:14

YouTube audience for your wonderful questions thank you and who's Gloria Henry Gloria Hendry is an actor who was

1:02:22

in was the first black um Bond girl and living that die and it's a horrible her

1:02:29

treatment in black exploitation the movies that are not black portation she was never given a good role to Black

1:02:35

Belt Jones she has a great role in that she was an actor who deserved like Teresa Randall who deserved better who

1:02:42

needed to fire her damn agent but she was the first black bom girl okay that

1:02:47

was uh another YouTube question that I wanted to see if we could throw in um so

1:02:52

the bookstore has very very graciously uh uh put forward a 20% discount on od's

1:02:59

book um so um and we are uh setting up the uh book signing in the back so I do

1:03:06

hope you will grab a book um OD brought a Sharpie pen and he's ready to sign the

1:03:13

book so again thank you so much for coming have a good thank you so much thank you thank [Applause]

1:03:23

you [Music]

1:03:53

did