Blaxploitation

  Blaxploitation film is a type of film oriented to black audiences that developed in the late 1960s and flourished up through the late 1970s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "blaxploitation" was first employed in the June 12, 1972 issue of New York magazine to characterize such films, specifically Superfly (1972). It derives from "sexploitation", first used in 1942. The OED defines "blaxploitation" as "the exploitation of Blacks, especially as actors in films of historical or other interest to blacks.

 To paraphrase a former senator, I may not be able to define blaxploitation, but I know it when I see it.

Blaxploitation Filmography (the short list)

• Trick Baby (1973) [ The only Iceberg Slim book to make it to the silver screen so far. ]
   

• Get Christie Love! (1974) [ The blaxploitation television series, mentioned in Quentin Tarantino's excellent film Reservoir Dogs. ]
   

• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) The Melvin Van Peebles classic (Rated X by an All White Jury!)
   

• Superfly (1972)
   

• Black Caesar (1972) [ also on DVD ]
   

• The Mack (1973)
   

• Shaft (1971)
   

• Shaft's Big Score (1972)
   

• Shaft in Africa (1973)
   

• Shaft in Africa (1973)
   

• Foxy Brown (1974) [ also on DVD ] : starring Pam Grier
   

• Coffy (1973) [ also on DVD ] : starring Pam Grier
   

• Dolemite (1975) [ also on DVD ]
   

• Dolemite 2: The Human Tornado (1976) [ also on DVD ]
   

• TNT Jackson (1975) [ also on DVD ]
   

• Black Belt Jones (1974)
   

• Cleopatra Jones (1973) [ also on DVD ]
   

• Cotton Comes To Harlem (1970) [ also on DVD ]
   

• Truck Turner (1974) [ also on DVD ]
   

• Hell Up in Harlem (1974) [ also on DVD ]

blaxploitation sounds

• Best of Blaxploitation: CD (30 soundtrack themes including Shaft, Superfly, Sweet Sweetback, etc.)
   

• Blaxploitation: The Soundtrack To the Live of the Superheroes: CD (20 themes, Superfly, Shorty the Pimp, Pursuit of the Pimpmobile... you get the idea.)

blaxploitation bibliography

• That's Blaxploitation: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All'Whyte Jury) The Darius James Masterpiece.
   

• What It Is... What It Was!; The Black Film Explosion of the '70s in Words and Pictures
   

• Representing : Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema
   

• Framing Blackness : The African American Image in Film (Culture and the Moving Image)
   

• Blaxploitation Cinema: Dr. Mikel J. Koren
   

• Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies: Bell Hooks
   

• Black American Cinema (AFI Film Reader): Manthia Diawara
   

• What It Is... What It Was!; The Black Film Explosion of the 70's in Words and Pictures: Gerald Martinez, et al.
   

• Black Action Films : Plots, Critiques, Casts and Credits for 235 Theatrical and Made-For-Television Releases: James Robert Parish, George A. Hill

blaxploitation resource on the net 

• Robert Chrisman definition of blaxploitation- an 11 page paper outlining the history of blaxploitation.: pdf file - part of the African American Studies Department at Berkeley.