SCREENING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 AT 12:00 A.M. BUY TICKETS HERE

SCREENING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 AT 12:05 A.M. BUY TICKETS HERE

In 1971, two films grabbed the movie business, shook it up, and launched a genre that would help define the decade. Melvin Van Peebles’s SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG, an independently produced film about a male sex worker who beats up cops and gets away, and Gordon Parks’s Shaft, a studio-financed film with a killer soundtrack, were huge hits, making millions of dollars. SWEETBACK upended cultural expectations by having its Black rebel win in the end, and Shaft saved MGM from bankruptcy. Not for the last time did Hollywood discover that Black people went to movies too. The Blaxploitation era was born.

Previously screened February 5, 2024 followed by a post-film conversation with Odie Henderson, head film critic at the Boston Globe and author of the new book Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema, moderated by editor Alan Scherstuhl. A book signing will follow.

Written by film critic Odie Henderson, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxpoitation Cinema (Abrams Press; January 30, 2024; U.S. $27.00; Hardcover), is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). Blaxploitation was a major trend, but it was never simple. The films mixed self-empowerment with exploitation, base stereotypes with essential representation that spoke to the lives and fantasies of Black viewers. The time is right for a reappraisal, understanding these films in the context of the time, and exploring their lasting influence.