Bush Mama (1979)
Library of Congress description:
A member of the L.A. Rebellion group of filmmakers, Ethiopian-born director Haile Gerima was inspired to make “Bush Mama” by seeing a Black Chicago woman evicted from her home during winter. Serving as Gerima’s UCLA thesis project, the film was released in 1979 though made earlier in 1975. Shot on a small budget, the film was directed, produced and edited by Gerima withcinematographyby Roderick Young andCharles Burnett. “Bush Mama” is the story of Dorothy, a woman facing another pregnancy and drowning in the oppressive red tape of a system that put her Vietnam veteran lover in prison for a crime he did not commit. Portrayed by the riveting, frequent L.A. Rebellion collaborator Barbara O, Dorothy persists through frustrations and exhaustion in her attempts to navigate a callous system that denies her the benefits needed to support her family. Brutally real and experimentally lyrical in its narrative strategies, “Bush Mama” resonates as a haunting look at inner city poverty, and damning indictments of police brutality and the welfare, judicial and penal systems.
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