Superfly

In the early seventies, mirroring the influential defiant culture of the Black Panthers there developed a uniquely “black” cinema in the United States. Featuring gritty street-wise characters, funk music and liberal doses of sex and violence, this genre quickly developed the name “blaxploitation” - a cinema directed to, and for, largely urban Afro-American audiences. Gordon Parks Jr’s “Superfly” is one of the most important films of the genre, as it unapologetically refused to compromise to white audience expectations. The hero, Priest, is a tough pimp and drug trafficker, who snorts cocaine throughout the movie and has little time for white people and their rules. The film follows his misadventures as he attempts to go straight in a world where the straights don’t want him. With limited resources, Parks Jr manages to create a highly entertaining and fast-paced thriller, fuelled by a brutal lead performance by Ron O’Neal and a stunning score by soul and funk musician, Curtis Mayfield.