On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce the end of slavery, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. That day, known as Juneteenth, was celebrated by African Americans as an unofficial holiday since 1866. On June 19, 2021, it was officially commemorated as a federal holiday, cementing Juneteenth’s legacy as monumental for African Americans and also an integral part of America’s ongoing story. Nevertheless, the struggle for equality has been an uphill battle.
This Juneteenth at 8pm ET, TCM presents Soulful Journeys, a night of films from the 1970s that uplifts the multiplicities of Black American life as presented onscreen roughly 100 years following emancipation. Each film in our lineup represents a new-found liberation within mainstream American cinema’s representation of Black people, influencing the Baby Boomer generation, Gen X and beyond. As the cinematic landscape took shape during the turn of the 20th century, its influence hit new heights by the early 1900s. Creators like Oscar Micheaux had carved out an independent lane for themselves to combat the rise in biased, often negative and limiting onscreen portrayals of Black people.
However, Micheaux was the only Black director to survive the Depression and continued to direct independently well into the 1940s. The Hollywood industry remained hostile to Black creators, forcing them to secure their own funding as well as learn the trade separately. Films produced by Black directors or created with Black audiences in mind were called race movies. These films were distributed in segregated cinemas or during segregated times of the day from the early 1900s into the early 1950s. Micheaux and comedian Spencer Williams of The Amos ‘n Andy Show fame remained the only two known Black directors independently making feature-length films during the 1940s.
While the 1950s saw Hollywood open its doors for stars like Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Ruby Dee and Harry Belafonte, it wasn’t until photographer, composer and author Gordon Parks directed his 1969 film The Learning Tree that the racially motivated gatekeeping in Hollywood would visibly shift. Parks became the first Black filmmaker to direct a major motion picture. In the early 1970s, he made Shaft (1971), a film that ushered in a new era of filmmaking from major studios with Black audiences in mind. These films often focused on the struggles, accomplishments and desires of Black Americans living in urban cities and were accompanied by timeless soundtracks that infused funk and soul, driving new life and energy into their stories. The films of this era are often more famous for their soundtracks and made stars out of their musical producers.
TCM’s Soulful Journeys kicks off with the Michael Schultz picture Car Wash (1976) starring Bill Duke, Richard Pryor, Clarence Muse, George Carlin and Ivan Dixon. Car Wash is a day in the life story following a group of Los Angeles car wash employees and the colorful characters that visit them. Though promoted as a vehicle for Pryor and Carlin, two of the era’s biggest comedians, both only appear in small roles. Instead, the film is an ensemble story that makes great use of its outstanding cast. The credit is owed to Schultz.
Schultz was one of the early Black directors to emerge from the changing landscape of Hollywood’s post-1960s shift. An accomplished theater director, Schultz directed an off-Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” in 1968. The 1972 made-for-tv adaptation marked his directorial television debut, and the same year, he made his directorial film debut with the now-lost film Together for Days, featuring Samuel L. Jackson in his film debut. Schultz’s breakout hit would follow in 1975 with Cooley Highfeatures music from the funk band Rose Royce, who recorded the film’s soundtrack, spawning three hit singles including “Car Wash.” The film won the Best Music Award and the Technical Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977. It was nominated for the Palme d’Or, one of the most prestigious awards in the world, and quickly gained cult film status.
Another film embraced passionately by audiences outside of the mainstream is Berry Gordy’s Mahogany (1975). Diana Ross stars as Tracy, an aspiring Chicago fashion designer balancing night school with working at a luxury department store. Her luck changes when she meets Sean (Anthony Perkins), a photographer who invites her to Rome to live her dreams of becoming a designer and model. The decision complicates her relationship with her activist boyfriend, Brian (Billy Dee Williams), who instead wants to stay in Chicago to help the community. Mahogany was the second picture that Ross, Williams and Gordy collaborated on. The three previously earned massive success on Gordy and Ross’s feature-film debuts, Lady Sings the Blues (1972).
Gordy’s triumph as the founder of Motown Records and Ross’s superstar status as the lead singer of Gordy’s most successful group The Supremes cemented a creative bond between the two. The character Tracy was originally written for Liza Minnelli before going to Ross, and Gordy only directed the film after firing original director Tony Richardson. Ross performed the film’s original soundtrack, securing a hit single with “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To).” Written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, the song earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. It was originally not considered an acceptable nomination by the Academy, but Gordy lobbied the Academy for a nomination.
Gordon Parks’ son carried his father’s torch as a creator of subversive, groundbreaking cinema in 1972 when he directed Super Fly. Gordon Parks Jr.’s film stars stage actor Ron O’Neal as Youngblood Priest, a streetwise drug dealer in Harlem who plans to make one final score before quitting the business for good. O’Neal stars alongside Carl Lee, the son of actor Canada Lee. Super Fly met public criticism for its glorification of drug culture and its negative portrayal of the Black community, but it still managed to become a box-office hit. Curtis Mayfield, who had previously been a part of the vocal R&B group The Impressions, drove much of Super Fly’s success thanks to his unforgettable soundtrack. It was Mayfield’s third album as a solo artist and was certified Gold three months into its release. Today it is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
Parks Jr.’s father opened the door for Black-centric soulful films in 1971 with his explosive detective thriller Shaft. Richard Roundtree stars as the titular detective, a complicated man no one understands but his woman. Like the great detectives of old Hollywood, Shaft is a world-weary private eye who accepts a dangerous case that uncovers bigger villains and conspiracies than he's prepared to handle. Unlike Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade, Shaft is known more so for his accompanying theme song—complete with funky guitar riffs, brass arrangements, flutes, pulsating drums and a groovy bass. Composed and performed by Isaac Hayes, Shaft’s soundtrack won Hayes two Grammy Awards in 1972, an Academy Award for Best Song and a Golden Globe for Best Original Score.
Shaft’s success all but saved MGM from bankruptcy. Intended to be a quick, low-budget crime film, Parks’ distinct taste, style and admiration for Black culture allowed him to produce a forward-thinking, culturally relevant film that audiences of all races embraced. Shaft earned back over 10 times its $500,000 budget at the box office, becoming one of three profitable MGM pictures that year. Its success lit the fuse for more cheaply made, Black-centric pictures, resulting in an era of films known as “Blaxploitation” referring to the commodification of Black-led films. This desire for revenue over artistic merit and social advancement of representation led to much criticism, and the era ended around 1977. A movement known as the L.A. Rebellion saw Black UCLA film students making independent movies to counterbalance the one-dimensional stories and characters that became paramount in Hollywood’s Blaxploitation era. Unfortunately, many critics over the years have lumped any movie made by Black creators or starring Black actors from the 1970s under the Blaxploitation umbrella.
One such film is Sparkle (1976) starring Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, Philip Michael Thomas and Mary Alice. Often mislabeled as Blaxploitation, Sparkle is the story of a late 1950s girl group and their struggles with success. The Williams sisters—Sister, Delores and Sparkle—are a Harlem-based singing trio known as Sister & The Sisters. Their careers and personal lives are molded and changed by bad business deals, drugs and racism. As the group falls apart under the pressure, the youngest sister, Sparkle (Cara), rises from the ashes to become a superstar. Director Sam O’Steen made his feature film directorial debut, and Joel Schumacher made his screenwriting debut basing the story of the Williams sisters on The Supremes and other popular girl groups of the 1960s.
Mayfield once again produced and arranged the score, and vocal superstar Aretha Franklin sang on the film’s soundtrack, which featured the song “Something He Can Feel,” later covered by En Vogue in 1992. Critics panned Sparkle during its release, but audiences embraced the film. It earned $4 million off a $1 million budget and gained a large, primarily African American cult following. One of those fans was singer Whitney Houston, who recalled seeing the movie every Saturday for months as a teenager. She later covered the film’s song “Look Into Your Heart” for a Curtis Mayfield tribute in 1994. Houston attempted to produce a remake in 2000 with singer Aaliyah as Sparkle before the singer’s untimely death. Houston finally got to remake Sparkle in 2012, marking her final film appearance.
