Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess

Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess

Sieving, Christopher

Hardcover

Series: Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora

Biographies GeneralDirectorsGeneral Sociology

ISBN10: 0253059216
ISBN13: 9780253059215
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: Feb 1 2022
Pages: 302
Weight: 1.58
Height: 0.94 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

The definitive look at one of the most important Black art films and original filmmakers of the 1970s.

Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess (1973) has across the decades attained a sizable cult following among African American cinema devotees, art house aficionados, and horror fans, thanks to its formal complexity and rich allegory. Pleading the Blood is the first full-length study of this cult classic.

Ganja & Hess was withdrawn almost immediately after its New York premiere by its distributor because Gunn's poetic re-fashioning of the vampire genre allegedly failed to satisfy the firm's desire for a by-the-numbers blaxploitation horror flick for quick sell-off in the urban market. Its current status as one of the classic works of African American cinema has recently been confirmed by the Blu-ray release of its restored version, by its continued success in screenings at repertory houses, museums, and universities, and by an official remake, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014), directed by Spike Lee, one of the original picture's longtime champions.

Pleading the Blood draws on Gunn's archived papers, screenplay drafts, and storyboards, as well as interviews with the living major creative participants to offer a comprehensive, absorbing account of the influential movie and its highly original filmmaker.

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