Storyline Inspired after having seen a Black woman in Chicago evicted in winter, director Haile Gerima (Sankofa) developed Bush Mama as his UCLA thesis film. Gerima blends narrative fiction, documentary, surrealism and political modernism in his unflinching story about a pregnant welfare recipient in Watts. Featuring the magnetic Barbara O. Jones (Freedom Road) as Dorothy, Bush Mama is an unrelenting and powerfully moving look at the realities of inner city poverty and systemic disenfranchisement of African Americans. The film explores the different forces that act on Dorothy in her daily dealings with the welfare office and social workers as she is subjected to the oppressive cacophony of state-sponsored terrorism against the poor. Motivated by the incarceration of her partner T.C. (Johnny Weathers) and the protection of her daughter and unborn child, Dorothy undergoes an ideological transformation from apathy and passivity to empowered action. Ultimately uplifting, the film chronicles Dorothy’s awakening political consciousness and her assumption of her own self-worth. With Bush Mama, Gerima presents an unflinching critique of the surveillance state and unchecked police power. The film opens with actual footage of the LAPD harassing Gerima and his crew during the shooting. -UCLA: Film & Television Archive
Storyline After returning home from Martin Luther King's funeral, Reverend Tom Hayward, [Lou Gossett Jr.] travels to his hometown of Carthage, Alabama. It's got a Black majority population, but it's owned by the white Tayman family.
When a young Black girl is assaulted by a local policeman, Tom leads a group of Blacks to the office of the county prosecutor to protest peacefully. Instead of justice, Tom is severely beaten by Sheriff Johnson; a man who has had a twenty year rule of terror. A Black man is killed during a campaign to get Blacks voters registered and Tom decides he must run for Sheriff, despite threats to his family.
The fight for justice begins, but the difference is the White have guns and have proved they are ready to use them while the Black community will retaliate only with forgiveness...and their votes for Tom!!
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This fan made soundtrack is gifted to us by a friend of the website. It is very well put together and worth the listen. Here are the notes from the original uploader (djsmokingjam).
Ganja & Hess is a film that once you see it, whether you like it or not, sinks its claws into you and doesn't let go, its images haunting you for a long time afterward. But even more haunting is the music from the film - Sam Waymon (younger brother of Nina Simone) creating an innovative, ahead-of-its-time mixture of soul, tribal chants, gospel and trippy, dissonant experimental cues that makes for the strangest score for a vampire film outside of Donald Rubenstein's jazzy accompaniment to Martin. Waymon also appears in the film as a preacher who moonlights as a driver for Duane Jones' infected Dr Hess Green.
Naturally, due to the film's obscurity, there was no chance of a soundtrack album being released - but as a fan of the film, I really wanted to be able to listen to the music on my iPod. So, I decided to make my own soundtrack, and share it with you all here, in case there's anyone here who loves this film as much as I do (and I'm sure there is!). Be warned of a couple of things though:
a) As you might expect from this sort of thing, sound effects and dialogue recur throughout. I think it works quite well, however; Gunn and Waymon obviously put a lot of attention into the soundscape of the film, and it shows.
b) Obviously, I was limited not only by my own inexperience when it comes to audio, but the crumminess of the source materials. Although I took the audio straight from the DVD (and did nothing more but raise the volume slightly via Goldwave), that DVD is itself taken from a few different old 35mm prints, since the negative was destroyed in the creation of the Blood Couple re-edit. In addition, some audio was sourced from the DIVX rip of Blood Couple available onsite - contrary to popular belief, the re-edit did not completely dispense with Waymon's score.
c) Track titles, as usual for this sort of thing, are mixed between those made up by me, and the proper names lagely gleaned via the excellent essay by Tim Lucas and David Walker included in the DVD-ROM folder of the 2006 DVD.
Tracklist
01. Intro
02. The Blood Of The Thing (Intro)
03. The Blood Of The Thing
04. Bungelii Work Song
05. Hess Is Stabbed
06. March Blues
07. You've Got To Learn To Let It Go (Instrumental)
08. Bungelii Work Song #2
09. Ganja & Hess Make Love
10. You've Got To Learn To Let It Go (Wedding)
11. A Strange Dream - You've Got To Learn To Let It Go
12. The Seduction
13. You've Got To Learn To Let It Go (w- Evangel Revivaltime Church)
14. Just As I Am (w- Evangel Revivaltime Church)
15. The Blood Of The Thing (Reprise)
16. Resurrection
17. There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood
18. You've Got To Learn To Let It Go (Studio Version)
19. Bonus Track - Theme From Blood Couple
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