Black Film Pioneers, 1969 -1971
Our recommendations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day begin with the films of Gordon Parks, the legendary photographer, filmmaker, and writer who died in 2006. Parks is known to film lovers as the director of SHAFT (1971) and THE LEARNING TREE (1969), but fewer may know about his deep roots to Reverend King. Back in 1963, Parks attended the March on Washington, where Dr. King gave his famed "Mountaintop" speech; in 1989, Parks composed the musical score for a ballet, "Martin," about the civil rights leader.
Parks' first film, THE LEARNING TREE (1969), is significant as a well-crafted, well-received film that was also the first Hollywood film directed by an African American. Now part of the U.S. Library of Congress Film Registry, it is also "a deeply felt, lyrically beautiful film that was, maybe, just too simple and honest to be commercial," according to Roger Ebert. Based on Parks' 1963 semi-autobiographical novel by the same title, THE LEARNING TREE offers a moving coming-of-age story about growing up as a poor black boy in Kansas during the 1920s. Parks' pioneering role in Hollywood history was helped by the commitment of actor/director John Cassavetes and his colleague, Warner Bros. producer Kenneth Hyman (they had worked together on THE DIRTY DOZEN in 1967), who gave Parks the greenlight to write, direct, produce, and score the film.
Parks' success with THE LEARNING TREE prompted Columbia to hire its own black director, Melvin Van Peebles, to direct WATERMELON MAN in 1970. Starring Godrey Cambridge as a white racist who wakes up one day as a black man, WATERMELON MAN was inspired by Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS. Thanks to the commercial success of his first studio film, Columbia offered Van Peebles a three-film deal, which the maverick filmmaker turned down in order to make the first independently financed black action film, SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG. Made for a pittance, financed in part by actor Bill Cosby, the outlaw tale of SWEET SWEETBACK was embraced by the Black Panther party and launched the blaxpoloitation film movement thanks to its unparalleled profitability. This film is so important in Hollywood's history, as well as to all of black filmmaking, that Melvin's son Mario made a film about it, BAADASSSS! Even if you think you're not interested in this subject, BAADASSSS! offers an engaging story (a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%), a good way to catch up on this pivotal time in history and appreciate the significance of Melvin Van Peebles and early independent filmmaking.
With SWEET SWEETBACK further opening opportunities for black films, Gordon Parks got a second chance when he directed SHAFT for MGM. Based on the private detective genre immortalized by 1940s noir films like THE MALTESE FALCON and THE BIG SLEEP, SHAFT built on stereotypes of black male sexuality while also knocking down genre cliches about the white private eye. Its success not only commercially but also critically -- with Isaac Hayes as one of the first African Americans to win an Oscar, for best original song -- leaves SHAFT as a landmark film (it's also in the Library of Congress' Film Preservation Registry) that remains totally fun to watch today. If you haven't seen, we urge you to watch it tonight -- you can rent it for just $2.99. Previously, only Sidney Poitier had received Oscar nominations for his acting, so SHAFT's mainstream success secured its preeminent spot in the Hollywood landscape.
After that, Parks went on to make SHAFT'S BIG SCORE, his son directed the cult classic SUPER FLY the same year, and the rise in blaxploitation films both opened the door to exploitation of black actors by white producers but also inspired the next generation of black filmmakers, as Spike Lee, John Singleton, and other contemporary directors have attested.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this January 21, we hope you're planning on taking time to appreciate the civil rights activist's legacy, and then we urge you to spend the evening with a couple of these films to get a quick -- very entertaining -- overview of the origins of postwar African American filmmaking.
Also: While still a photographer, Gordon Parks had often photographed Malcolm X, and he was godfather to Malcolm X's daughter. Parks also worked with Spike Lee as the still photographer on the set of MALCOLM X, starring Denzel Washington as the rebellious black leader.
