alr

The Mack

Screening on Film
Directed by Michael Campus.
With Max Julien, Richard Pryor, Don Gordon.
US, 1973, 35mm, color, 110 min.

Pimpin’ ain't easy, the saying goes, and no film better illustrates both the glamour and the downside of this world than The Mack. Though not the first film to invite audiences to identify with a villain, its volatile yet progressive take on sex, class, capitalism and race made it an important touchstone not only for black film, but also for hip-hop culture—serving as major inspiration for many musicians. Part gritty urban realism, part male fantasy, The Mack is based on the life of Frank Ward, one of the most successful African American drug dealers and pimps at the time. The real Ward provided guidance, protection and permission to film in his Oakland, California “territory” as well as all of the movies’ authentic underground extras—in exchange for a small role in the film. Max Julien plays Goldie, the Ward character, who returns home from jail to discover that his brother has become a black nationalist, whose opposition to drugs and violence complicates Goldie’s achieving his career goals. Shot in the middle of a turf war, the production came to a momentary halt when Ward was killed, and the filmmakers had to renegotiate with the Black Panthers. - adapted from text by Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club

The Mack introduction by Jeremy Rossen.

Part of film series

Read more

Say It Loud!
The Black Cinema Revolution

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Melville et Cie.

Read more

Psychedelic Cinema

Read more

Figures of Absence: The Films of Dore O.

Read more

Hamaguchi Ryusuke, The World as Stage

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

António Campos and the Promise of Cinema Novo

Read more

Boston Punk Rewound / Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988