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Movies became an accidental vehicle for female empowerment in the 1970s. Though this happened for all the right reasons, including the rise of feminism and a greater cultural awareness of the predicament of women, the main reason that it happened was pure entertainment.

Blaxploitation movies, horror movies, and other low budget films of the 1970s had a unique problem. They could not afford big actors or special effects. Especially with the technology of the day, if they could not afford Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Perry is a true renaissance man of enormous talent. When his body of work is examined, it seems as though everything he touches turns to gold. He’s had incredible successes from play writing and songwriting to acting and directing. Although he has done almost everything one can do in the entertainment field, he is probably best known for his movies.

His first movie was 2005′s Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which is the story of a woman who felt like her marriage was fine until her husband filed for divorce. This movie marked the appearance of his most popular character Madea, who is a tough elderly woman played by Perry himself.

This film was closely followed in 2006 by the first Madea movie, Madea’s Family Reunion, which opened at number one. Other movies in the Madea series include Meet the Browns, Madea Goes to Jail, I Can Do Bad All by Myself, Madea’s Big Happy Family, Madea’s Witness Protection and the upcoming A Madea Christmas. Perry’s Madea movies, while wildly profitable, have been criticized for using stereotypes in his movies, particularly in the character of Madea.

His other film projects include Daddy’s Little Girls, Why Did I Get Married, Precious, Why Did I Get Married Too, For Colored Girls and he recently starred as the nominal role in Alex Cross. Some of Perry’s best movies can be watch On Demand, which you can get from www.DirectspcialTV.com as part of your TV package.

Never one to slow down, Perry has three more movies slated for release in the next year. All but one of the movies Perry has made have him in a starring role, and his movies have grossed over 500 million.

Blaxploitation is a term used to identify a series of movies made during the 1970s by, for and starring African-American people. As the target audience for these films was the African-American community the black characters were usually fighting against an organization headed by white people trying to oppress the African-American community in an inner city area.

Melvin Van Peeble’s Sweet Sweetback’s Badaaass Song is usually credited with being the first Blaxploitation movie. The hero of the movie is Sweet Sweetback, a small time male prostitute attempting to steer clear of a corrupt police force dominated by Read the rest of this entry »

Blaxploitation movies are the kind of thing that are meant to be taken as a grain of salt. These aren’t the kind of films that were made with Oscar in mind, they were the type of movies that were made to not just give urban black audiences heroes, and give movie watchers of all creeds and colors a good time at the movies. While they were important movies in the sense that they were able to give African Americans characters they could root for, and helped Read the rest of this entry »

While an argument can certainly be made that the so called “Blaxploitation” films of the 1970s were demeaning to Afro-American society at the time, most writers with that opinion appear to be Caucasian, adopting a politically-correct stance. In their hindsight, they are not taking into account that these films were largely written and produced by black companies for a predominantly black audience. When black theatergoers went to see these films, they weren’t expecting to see a Read the rest of this entry »

Shaft (1971)
The 1971 film Shaft starred Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, a private detective that withstands the cops, battles through Harlem and encounters that Italian mob to find a kidnap victim. The film illustrates a private-eye hero with a different look at the customary rapport with the otherwise; “boys” down at homicide.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
Melvin Van Peeples wrote, produced, directed and starred in the 1971 independent film Read the rest of this entry »

The 1960s and early 1970s were a time of great social change in American society, and the blaxploitation movement is a striking example of this change.

This genre of film emerged in the early 1970s as a result of black filmmakers wishing to portray stronger black characters on the screen. The idea of a black superhero was almost unheard of prior to the movement, but the political and social upheaval that took place in the late 1960s gave these black filmmakers the strength to make and release their films.

Fortunately, audiences responded very positively, as movies such Read the rest of this entry »