Black on Screen: Super Fly (1972)

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture continues with “100 Years of Black Music on Camera.” From Jazz, to Funk, to Hip-Hop, this season celebrates the sonic archive of Black life as seen and heard on film.

Join us for a screening of Gordon Parks Jr.’s 1972 classic, Super Fly. The thrilling blaxploitation era drama stars Ron O’Neal as Youngblood Priest, a smooth New York City drug pin plotting to retire from life in the fast lane. But hoping to cash in for the last time, Priest embarks on a final scheme before he cleans up his act. What follows is a tornado of hijinks and seduction, as seen through Parks Jr.’s evocative lens and heard through Curtis Mayfield’s third studio album Super Fly, produced as the original film score. Mayfield, with this groundbreaking soul album would go on to out-gross the film itself. Lauded for its politically charged lyrics and funky tenor, Super Fly remains one of the most influential soundtracks of Black power, inspiring future genres of Black music through a blueprint of defiance.

Running Time: 93 minutes

Following the film, stay for a conversation featuring comedian and co-host of Shouting at the Screen, Wyatt Cenac, and music journalist and host of Milestones: Celebrating the Culture on WBGO, Angélika Beener. Moderating the conversation will be Daniella Brito, Curatorial Specialist at the Schomburg Center.

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture, captures 100 years of local and transnational Black movement work and artistic evolution on film. Sourced from The Schomburg’s collection and others, it takes a kaleidoscopic look at Black life and expression across diasporas, rendering a range of storytelling traditions that incite and inspire Black world-building. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS, pronounced “meers”) at the Schomburg Center collects and preserves audio and moving image (AMI) materials related to the experiences of people of African descent. The division has amassed nearly 400 collections, approximately 5,000 square feet, in a variety of formats, which captures the gestures and sounds of major historical, artistic and cultural moments and influencers. While the strength is the Black American holdings there is considerable Caribbean and African representation in the collection.

Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

This year, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! Join us all year long for a wide array of special events, exhibitions, and more as we celebrate this milestone and continue the legacy of Arturo Schomburg.

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Host or Publisher Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture