This event is SOLD OUT.

Written, directed, and produced by David F. Walker, Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered, & Shafted (2004) is an insightful examination of the blaxploitation film movement of the 1970s. Featuring interviews with key actors and filmmakers, the documentary explores the origins of blaxploitation, and the controversial history of Hollywood’s most misunderstood genre.

Following the film, join the film director and author David F. Walker and Chicago theater director, educator, and author Pemon Rami for a conversation on the legacy of blaxploitation film today and on Chicago’s early participation in race films.

Free; registration required.

Schedule

6:00 p.m. – Reception
6:30 p.m. – Film Screening
7:45 p.m. – Discussion
8:15 p.m. – Q&A
8:30 p.m. – Program concludes

Photo of Pemon Rami speaking while students stage funeral procession to Board of Education Photo of Pemon Rami speaking while students stage funeral procession to Board of Education.
Mock funeral for Board of Education at Civic Center Black students stage mock funeral for the Board of Education during high school boycott, at the Civic Center Plaza, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Oct. 28, 1968. ST-16002900-0013, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM
Black students stage mock funeral for the Board of Education during high school boycott, at the Civic Center Plaza, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois. Black students stage mock funeral for the Board of Education during high school boycott, at the Civic Center Plaza, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Mock funeral for Board of Education at Civic Center Black students stage mock funeral for the Board of Education during high school boycott, at the Civic Center Plaza, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois.

rami
Pemon Rami
Filmmaker, Educator, Activist

Pemon Rami  (he/him) is an international film producer and director, former member of the Joseph Jefferson Theatre Awards committee, National Endowment for the Arts evaluator, and former director of educational and public programs for DuSable Museum of African American History. He was recently appointed by Governor Pritzker to the Board of the Illinois Arts Council. While in his teens Rami was cast in a reoccurring role on the weekly TV series Bird of the Iron Feather, television’s first black soap opera. Rami also appeared in the acclaimed feature films The Spook Who Sat by the Door and Mahogany.  As a casting director, he provided talent for Blues Brothers, Mahogany, Cooley High, Dummy, The Monkey Hustle, The Marva Collins Story, and One in A Million.  Pemon produced the feature film Of Boys and Men starring Angela Bassett and Robert Townsend and 93 Days starring Danny Glover, for which he was nominated for an African Academy Award and an African People’s Choice Award. Rami has also served in manager/director roles for Theodore Ward’s South Side Center for the Performing Arts, the Kuumba Workshop, the Lamont Zeno Theatre, the Phoenix Black Theatre Troupe, and Marla Gibbs Crossroads National Education and Entertainment Complex in Los Angeles.

 

David F. Walker square headshot
David F. Walker
Comic book writer, Filmmaker, Educator

David F. Walker’s career has spanned multiple decades and includes work as a comic book writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. Walker’s work includes the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History (Ten Speed Press), the Eisner Award and Ringo Award-winning series Bitter Root (Image Comics), and the Eisner Award-nominated series Naomi (DC Comics). He has written for Marvel Comics (Luke Cage, Occupy Avengers, Power Man and Iron Fist, Nighthawk, Fury, Deadpool, Planet of the Apes) and DC Comics (Cyborg, Young Justice). A respected scholar in the study of African American representation in film, Walker wrote, produced, and directed the documentary film Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered, & Shafted examining the history of blaxploition films of the 1970s, and wrote the book Identity and Illusion: A History of Black Representation and Participation in the Movies. He also teaches part time at Portland State University.

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