Gordon Parks, Jr. was a photographer from Minneapolis who had trained as a cinematographer under his father when he convinced a group of African American investors from Harlem to pool their money into a Blaxploitation movie. Using a cast and crew that was by and large African American and Puerto Rican, Parks and Blaxploitation star Ron O’Neal shot to fame with 1972’s Super Fly, a sordid tale about Harlem cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest who cooks up a plan to go straight. But Priest’s plans go awry when his black business partners and his white suppliers decide that his retirement isn’t in their best interests. Join me in my Cadillac El Dorado as we discuss race, revolution, and #BlackLivesMatter.
