Keep in mind, JESSE JACKSON DESTROYED A GENERATION OF BLACK FILMMAKERS. Perhaps in a botched attempt to shake down the studios that made them, Jackson organized protests that put Black-themed features out of business in the early seventies. Nice work, “Reverend.”
In the slight-but-interesting IFC documentary “Baadasssss Cinema,” you see Fred Williamson and Gloria Hendry rightly blame the “Reverend” for ending their livelihood. Williamson still wonders why Jackson, PUSH and the NAACP didn’t just “make their own movies.” It’s tragic to see a Race Man like The Hammer brought down by parasites like Jackson.
SPIKE LEE SINGLE-HANDEDLY RESURRECTED THE BLACK CINEMA THAT JACKSON DESTROYED. Say what you will about Lee’s frog-like appearance and poor production values, he paved the way when there was no way. Any black American working in film today owes Spike a nod (and Jackson is owed a faceful of spit)
