Baadasssss Cinema

Isaac Julien’s documentary examines the short-lived, but deeply influential, flourishing of commercial Black independent filmmaking in the early 1970s which became known as ‘blaxploitation’. With contributions from luminaries of the time, including actors Pam Greer and Fred Williamson, directors Melvin Van Peebles and Gordon Parks Jr. and contemporary fans Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, the documentary sets the films of the period in their context and asks a series of questions. Did Seventies hits such as ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Assss Song’ and ‘Shaft’ provide ‘revolutionary’ or retrograde images of American blacks? Why was it that ‘blaxploitation’ films, having helped save a declining Hollywood, were then became marginalised? ‘Badassss Cinema’ doesn’t provide any especially reassuring (or, for that matter, surprising) answers to these questions, but as a piece of revisionist film history it’s a snappy and informative overview of a fascinating moment in early Seventies American cinema.BAADASSSSS CINEMA is a tight, compact documentary about the Blaxploitation film genre. That genre was born with Melvin Van Peebles’ key films SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG (see next entry), a film that did not avoid the negative stereotyping of Afro-American characters and their lifestyle and leaned heavily on conventional Hollywood genres.Julien follows the genre from the very start up till Tarantino’s homage JACKIE BROWN. His film is filled with fragments and interviews with key figures – from actors like Samuel Jackson, Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier to a wide spectrum of commentators and critics. Blaxploitation was funny, charismatic and triumphant at first, but as the genre grew in popularity, the political consciousness of the early days slowly changed to hedonistic excess.