Ganja and Hess
- Gunn / US, 1973 / 110 min.
Forgotten and unacknowledged: it’s the sad story of African American filmmaker Bill Gunn, whose psychedelic tale of horror about an anthropology professor in the grip of an African vampire curse only had a short run in the cinemas. The screening on 4 December will be introduced by documentary maker Tessa Boerman. Part of Looking for America: Black Lives on Screen.
Dr. Hess, a renowned African American anthropologist, travels to Africa to round off his research into the Myrthia, a lost African tribe notorious for its blood rituals. He is accompanied by George, his psychologically unstable assistant. When George attacks the professor with a Myrthian ceremonial dagger, the consequences are bizarre.
Gunn”s experimentally filmed and philosophical horror allegory about the clash between Christianity and African religions, love and sex, premiered at Cannes, but failed to live up to the producer”s expectations. The film was withdrawn from circulation shortly after its release. It was subsequently reedited, truncated and marketed as a Blaxploitation product under the title Blood Couple. Only in 2003 did the original become available again; Spike Lee made a remake in 2014.
Tessa Boerman, documentary maker and advisor and programmer for film, culture and media, will introduce the film on 4 December. Her introduction is preceded by a fragment from George A. Romero”s Night of the Living Dead (1968), starring Duane Jones as the leading actor. It was to be the only other leading role for the African American star of Ganja and Hess.
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Details
Director
- Gunn
Production year
1973
Country
US
Original title
Ganja and Hess
Length
110 min.
Format
Blu-ray
Part of
Looking for America
This autumn Eye is taking an inquisitive look at the United States. How does the age-old ideal of a ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ relate to the difficult reality of today?
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