Will



Sunday, April 6, 3:30 p.m., @ 2220 Arts + Archives

West Coast Premiere 






Director: Jessie Maple
United States, 1981, 71m, DCP

Presented in partnership with Black Revivalist. 

In 1981, Jessie Maple became the first African American woman to direct an independent film with this raw, unflinching portrait of heroin addiction and recovery.

The first independent feature by an African American woman, writer-director-producer Jessie Maple’s groundbreaking film is an intimate portrait of redemption and addiction, with incredible NYC location shooting and wonderful naturalistic performances. In Harlem, former All-American basketball player Will (Obaka Adedunyo) works to kick his drug habit and regain control of his life, finding purpose and direction in an unexpected encounter and mentorship of an adrift unhoused boy (Robert Dean) he affectionately calls “Little Brother.” With a documentarian’s precision, Maple evokes effortless performances from a mixture of non-professional and professional actors (including the great Loretta Devine as Will’s wife) and demonstrates her mastery of tone, with cinematography from her husband and co-producer Leroy Patton. Made for $12,000 and self-distributed, Will is an emblem of the production methods and alternative distribution networks that sustained African-American cinema outside the mainstream industry, and is finally available for a wider audience to appreciate.

The new 4K restoration of Will (1981) was a joint project between the Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Time-Based Media Archives and Conservation staff, and the Center for African American Media Arts.

Special thanks to Camm Harrison, E. Danielle Butler and Michelle Materre.

Distributor: Janus Films

Cast: Obaka Adedunyo, Robert Dean, Loretta Devine (leads), Ellwoodson Williams, Mimi Ayers, J.W. (Jimmy) Smith, Jesse D. Goins, Darryl Alladice, Maiwanda Bullock, John Reed, Reno Huntley, Jr., Dorothi Fox, Jewell Butler

Producers: Jessie Maple, LeRoy Patton
Writers: Jessie Maple and Anthony Wisdom
Cinematographer: LeRoy Patton
Editor: Willette Coleman
Assistant Director: Sandi Vernon
Sound: Michael Jacobson 
Assistant Camera: Robert Shepard