February 2003 BaadAsssss Cinema

(Feb: Main Page * Features * Reviews * Screenings * Teen ) Current Issue * Archive

Reviewed by Godfrey Powell BaadAsssss Cinema The definition of Black Exploitation. The explosive birth and rapid demise of Blaxploitation. These are some of the issues explored in the BaadAsssss Cinema Docurama which premiered in August of 2002 on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). Baaaad Asss is an hour long study of not only the movies of this genre but how they manifested themselves given the political and economic conditions of blacks at that time. The docurama does this through a plethora of clips from the barrage of blaxploitation films that entered theaters from Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1972) to Coffy (1973) to poorer ones such as Black Hooker. BaadAsssss Cinema begins with the movie that began this genre of films Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. The director and star of the movie, Melvin Van Peebles states, “I saw films and figured I could do better than that.” Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song tapped into a huge reservoir of pent-up black appreciation. Thousands of blacks waited in long lines to see it. The Black Panther Party made it required viewing for all its members as it defied the cultural limitations placed on black men. With such a success, a struggling Hollywood seized upon this tremendous revenue stream where a film could be produced for $700,000 and made tens of millions of dollars in return. Film critic Ed Guerrero analyzes that Sweet Sweetback began the debate from the beginning between the idea of a revolutionary style of movie or exploitatation of black life. Did these films do more harm than good for the black community? Immediately, outrage arose from the NAACP, Jesse Jackson and Push and C.O.R.E against the output of these Hollywood movies. These black organizations felt the output was not healthy nor a realistic representation of black life. The heroes of these movies degenerated into a long list of pimps, drug dealers, gang leaders that triumphed over the “Man”. They reveled in women, flashy jewelry and of course that 70’s fashion. Melvin Peebles says, “Hollywood suppressed the political messages of the earlier films and added black caricatures and blaxploitation was born.” Lastly, the strongest point studied in BaaadAsss is the idea of a Black Hollywood. The explosion of black film created tremendous amounts of jobs for black directors, black actors and black production crews. This explosion laid the foundation for a growing influx of blacks into the film business. Unfortunately, this influx did not sustain blaxploitation films nor increase their potential to evolve into a higher plane of film. Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, at the end of the docurama, notes, “It came, it died, it went before it had a chance to grow. Black Hollywood? It don’t exist. Nah, No.” BaadAssss Cinema is directed by Isaac Julien. Among the many interviewed include: Afeni Shakur, Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, Melvin Peebles, Gloria Hendry, film critic Elvis Mitchell and Quentin Tarantino. Celebrate Black History by picking up this film.