The mission of The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture to identify the global significance of the creative contributions pioneered by an international diaspora of Blackness
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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Tom [a.k.a. The Bad Bunch] (1973)




















Starring:


Storyline
Violence and racial tension punctuate this fast moving action film, that is a study of prejudice and discrimination. This is the story of a black gang who run the streets of Watts and of Jim, a white man, who tries to befriend them. Prejudice stands in the way of any friendship and turns black against white in a bloody act of vengeance. This film, set in the mid '70's, does much to show how society has progressed, but to some it may seem that "the more thing change, the more they stay the same."

Friday, June 4, 2010

The Thing With 2 Heads (1972)





























Starring:

Storyline
Despite his deteriorating health, incredibly wealthy and profoundly racist brain surgeon Maxwell Kirshner (Ray Milland) plans to be around for a very long time. What better way to achieve his goal than to transplant his still cognitive noggin onto the body of a healthy human being? Having performed similar experimental surgeries on animals, Maxwell convinces his colleagues to achieve the groundbreaking and unsanctioned medical procedure on him – the first successful head-graft. With his body in rapid decline, Maxwell’s head gets transplanted onto the first available body. And that would be death row inmate Jack Moss (Rosey Grier). Did we forget to mention that Jack Moss is black?

Poor Pretty Eddie [a.k.a. Black Vengeance] (1975)




















Starring:

Storyline
Liz Wetherly is a popular black singer in need of a break from her hectic schedule. When her car breaks down, she ends up stuck in a remote southern town that‘s been left for dead “ever since they put in the interstate.”  She is forced to spend the night at “Bertha’s Oasis”, a rundown lodge that serves as the bizarre fiefdom of an overweight ex-burlesque star who lords over her much younger boyfriend, Eddie, and a cast of equally-strange townsfolk. Eddie fancies himself a singer on par with Elvis, and expects Wetherly to make him famous. But things turn ugly for Wetherly, who endures rape and abuse at the hands of her captors, before culminating in her bloody revenge on the “rednecks” that terrorized her.