Film Forum

(1979, Haile Gerima) “Dorothy (Barbara O. Jones) is a woman who hears voices — nothing intelligible, just a headful of kaleidoscopic noise. These sounds both insulate and plague her as she wanders numbly through Haile Gerima’s ‘Bush Mama,’ a film about ghetto life with a Los Angeles setting and a forcefulness that transcends its specific locale. ‘Bush Mama’ is fiery, furious, overflowing with rhetoric and slightly out of breath. The Ethiopian-born Mr. Gerima made the film as his thesis project at the University of California at Los Angeles, with a low budget and a lot of audacity.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times. With Johnny Weathers, Cora Lee Day. 16mm print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive. Approx. 97 min.