The series that was all lined up for 2024 was booted out -- possibly for the second time, I don't remember -- and may not surface until 2026 at this point, since I have a possible 2025 idea already. And this was the result of watching a movie that didn't really make an impact on my 2022 list, finishing at a mere 77th out of 175 movies ranked.
Film critic Elvis Mitchell made a documentary called Is That Black Enough for You?!?, which I thought was limited a little bit by the fact that Mitchell is not actually a filmmaker. It was more like a long YouTube essay, the kind Kogonada made before he became an acclaimed filmmaker, but without Kogonada's visual sense.
But the subject matter was great.
And I became aware of a number of blaxploitation blind spots, and reminded of one huge one: Shaft.
Oh I've seen one of the two Shaft remakes starring Samuel L. Jackson, but the 1971 original, starring Richard Roundtree as pictured above, has eluded me for the entire 53 years of its existence.
Time to correct that.
So, it's as simple as that for 2024: one unseen blaxploitation movie per month.
I won't reveal any titles as of now except for Shaft, which will probably be my first later this month. However, I can give you some idea of what I've already seen, to provide a sense of where I'm coming from and how much work I have to do.
One of the earliest I can remember seeing is Super Fly, a film whose bigger impression was left by its Curtis Mayfield soundtrack, which I listened to regularly back in the 1990s. Over the years I've also caught up with the likes of Blacula and Get Christie Love!
The fact that I didn't list a third title in that last sentence, as the rule of three dictates you should, indicates how direly in need of this series I am.
I think of myself as having a good familiarity with blaxploitation, but that's largely because I've watched a lot of what Wikipedia refers to as post-blaxploitation films, which are either latter day versions of blaxploitation movies or movies that consider the blaxploitation movie as a phenomenon by recreating the making of a blaxploitation movie. There are a lot more titles in this group, such as I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Black Dynamite, Pootie Tang, Dolemite is My Name, Baadasssss!, Jackie Brown and Undercover Brother. Some of these only contain elements of blaxploitation.
The real McCoy, though? It's a blind spot that I'm going to partially cover with a dozen seminal films in 2024, exclusively from the 1970s. You can think of it also as a belated recognition of the 50th birthday of this 1973 baby.
I struggled a bit with what to call this series. The genre name itself is already confronting, so I figured, confronting names are on the table.
Not that what I settled on is really confronting, it's just that it requires a permission that has already effectively been granted by the initial genre name.
I'll call this series Blaxploitaudient.
It's a bit of a mouthful, containing one more syllable than the genre name. But you know I like to fit the blog name in where I can, and so, this is what we're doing.
Stay tuned later this month as I cross the mother of all blaxploitation blind spots, Shaft, off my list.
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