SHAFT

Directed by Gordon Parks

(1971) “Who’s the Black private dick that’s a Sex Machine to all the chicks?” Richard Roundtree is John Shaft, one cool dude in turtleneck and leather jacket, bopping down The Deuce to the beat of Isaac Hayes’ Oscar-winning theme song, and handling cop pal Charles Cioffi the bodies of half the drug dealers on the East Coast. 35mm. Approx. 100 min.
12:30, 4:25, 8:20, 10:15

“Forty years of gumshoe noir collided with black power in this 1971 action classic.”
– J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader 

“A hip, cool, entertaining thriller.”
– Time Out

“The first picture to show a black man who leads a life free of racial torment.”
– Ebony

SUPER FLY

Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.

(1972) Coke-blowing Harlem pusher Priest has fine vines, a mean haul and a pair of foxes, but he wants to split from the life. Ron O’Neal stars as one of the era’s most unforgettable icons and the ultimate in early 70s fashion statements. Music by Curtis Mayfield. 35mm. Approx. 96 min.
2:30, 6:25, 8:20, 10:20

“Gordon Parks Jr. was one of the greatest casualties of the collapse of blaxploitation cinema, a director with a distinctive, tightly packed visual style and a remarkably bitter vision for this supposedly escapist genre.”
– Dave Kehr

“Its gut pleasures are real, and there are a lot of them.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times