|
 Emma Mae is a 1976 blaxploitation movie made by Jamaa Fanaka, it was his second feature length film, with his first being the absolutely wild picture, Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975). Emma Mae is about a young woman who moves from small town Mississippi to Watts, California with her family. She struggles to fit in at first, but soon finds herself smitten with a local drug dealer and addict. He’s soon jailed after an encounter with a racist cop and Emma takes it upon herself to help get him bailed out by starting a car wash business. Things don’t go quite according to plan so Emma decides to take things a step further to get the cash needed. An interesting thing about this movie is that a large portion of the cast were non-professional actors, including our lead.  Emma Mae This is a great film, and in my opinion is Fanaka’s best movie. Welcome Home Brother Charles is a great parody of blaxploitation movies, and the Penitentiary series are some of the most interesting “prison fight ring” type movies out there, but Emma Mae is a bit more grounded than either of them and has a ton of heart to it. I do recommend checking out his other movies. He was part of a film movement called the L.A. Rebellion, which was compromised of other young African American filmmakers that graduated from UCLA and wanted to make films outside of the Hollywood system that focused on stories for their communities. The community and setting is an integral part of the movie as it examines a social shift in the black community. During this time, the Black Panther Party was disintegrating thanks to the fed and local pd doing a bunch of nefarious poo poo. As a result street gangs began to rise, initially for community protection then evolving into more criminal enterprises. It makes for unique backdrop to the film and you can see its influence on similar stories in the years to come. You can check it out for free in full on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF6K-pw3BfU&t=5851s also an archive.org link: https://archive.org/details/emma.-mae.-1976.1080p MacheteZombie fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Apr 2, 2025 |
#
?
Apr 1, 2025 22:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2025 14:35 |
|
|
Emma Mae is great. I actually saw it for the first time when we programmed it earlier this year. She's written and acted so beautifully. It's not just an accurate portrayal of organzing/expropriation for the purpose of maintaining community cohesion, but also a very articulate commentary on why the racial justice fight in the south succeeded due to social bonds and institutions that were root deep and steeped in revolutionary discipline, and also why the absence of such institutions and bonds in the north doomed the struggle there in the face of a far more sophisticated heirarchy of opposition. It's also an earnest picture of black life at a very specific moment, and a reminder of why many of the most radical movements are women-led or instigated. I almost think the 'blaxsploitation' description is overselling. Similar to The Spook Who Sat By The Door, Emma Mae co-opts some of the vibe and aesthetic of that over the top genre categorization for the strict purpose of smuggling radicalization in its most grounded and fundamental forms. It's overall more classifiable than a film like Clark's flowing, synaesthetic Passing Through, but even that film in all of its psychedelic musings and interpersonal diversions is talking in real radical terms about events of everydayness as essential to overthrowing the status quo. Thanks for the thread, only sort of related this has reminded me to watch more Charles Burnett.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2025 08:54
|
|
|
Glad someone else really enjoyed it! I did hesitate to call it blaxploitation since I know it carries a certain expectation for a lot of people and this isn't really like other movies under the genre, but I kept seeing it called one so i figured what the hell. It's just a really drat good film and a great example of minority filmmakers breaking from the traditional routes of film production to tell really unique stories. The actress that played Emma Mae is so wonderful to watch, and she really sells the big moments. Love how she really goes for it during the ending. minor note, edited the OP to add an archive.org link to make it a bit more accessible: https://archive.org/details/emma.-mae.-1976.1080p
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2025 16:15
|
|
|
Oh hey, this was on my watchlist until I basically killed or mutated the whole thing away recently because it had gotten to be too much of a cognitive load to carry on my movie watching choices. With this rec, I will definitely check it out though since you've made it so easy to see. Thanks! Edit: OK, watching it now and just pausing eleven minutes in to say how impressed I am with how natural it feels. And you said it was done with largely non-professional actors? It's great! I'm mostly digging all the actors' reactions to things, it's like they're really responding to the diegetic reality of the film, if that makes sense. It's a neat vibe. Edit again: Or maybe it's more like their reactions to each other as non-actors are establishing the diegetic reality of the film? I dunno, I dunno film theory; what I'm saying is probably obvious; it's just really cool to experience it by feel. Servoret fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Apr 12, 2025 |
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2025 13:56
|
|
|
Coincidentally, I had just bookmarked this to watch, I'm gonna get on this this week. Seemed weird to me there was a Jamaa Fanaka movie I hadn't seen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2025 17:51
|
|
|
HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Coincidentally, I had just bookmarked this to watch, I'm gonna get on this this week. Seemed weird to me there was a Jamaa Fanaka movie I hadn't seen. I need to get to Penitentiary 3 and Street Wars. How is Street Wars?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2025 17:59
|
|
|
Really feels like the end of an era, has Khalid Muhammad playing himself in it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2025 18:15
|
|
|
Welcome Home Brother Charles was certainly the weirdest 7th grade sleepover pick from Blockbuster in my life. Will watch this month. Thanks for writing up!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2025 23:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2025 14:35 |
|
|
Kull the Conqueror posted:Welcome Home Brother Charles was certainly the weirdest 7th grade sleepover pick from Blockbuster in my life. Will watch this month. Thanks for writing up! Lmao
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2025 15:22
|
|