Emma Mae aka Black Sister’s Revenge (1976)

(On Cable TV, June 2022) Well, isn’t this interesting. I’ve had the occasion, a few months ago, to write a thorough history of American Black cinema, and there was one section I wasn’t happy about: How did Blaxploitation turn into the social-issues-driven black cinema of the late 1980s? Well, Emma Mae offers at least part of the missing link, and unlocks a doorway to a less popular era of black filmmaking. Coming from writer-director Jamaa Fanaka, this is a glimpse into the L.A. Rebellion movement that offered a raw black alternative to Hollywood. A look at Emma Mae reveals a film almost perfectly balanced between Gordon Parks and Spike Lee, as a young woman from Mississippi ends up in Los Angeles and becomes a moll for a local gangster. When he’s locked up and in need of bail money, she takes matters into her own hands and starts planning a bank robbery. While this sounds like a straight-up genre exercise, there’s an almost neo-realistic quality to the way the film portrays life in black neighbourhoods – with terrific 1970s hairstyles and fashion. The film is also more socially-minded than most in ending on a note of futility for the heroine, as she berates the men for being involved in trivial criminal activities. Jerri Hayes is quite good as the titular Emma Mae, but the film itself is the revelation for me – helping fill out a period in black film history that doesn’t always get as much attention as the blaxploitation movement or the new social revindications of the late 1980s onward. I’ll be back for more.