Distribution

Ganja & Hess

Dir: Bill Gunn

USA

1973

110 mins

18

Play Dates

  • Show All
  • London
  • Midlands
  • North
  • Wales
  • Scotland
  • Republic of Ireland
  • Northern Ireland

BFI Southbank

07/11/2022

Lambeth,

London

Broadway Cinema

30/10/2022

Nottingham

Chapeltown Picture House

30/10/2022

Manchester

Chapter

18/12/2022

- 18/12/2022

Cardiff

Creative Stirling

28/10/2022

Derby QUAD

11/11/2022

- 14/11/2022

Derby

Hebden Bridge Picture House

29/10/2022

Hebden Bridge

Irish Film Institute

23/10/2022

- 23/10/2022

Dublin

Leeds International Film Festival

04/11/2022

- 05/11/2022

Leeds

Prince Charles Cinema

10/10/2022

Westminster,

London

Queen's Film Theatre

20/10/2022

Belfast

Storyhouse

11/10/2022

Chester

The Dukes

26/10/2022

Lancaster

The Garden Cinema

29/10/2022

Camden,

London

The Phoenix Cinema

27/10/2022

Kirkwall

Tyneside Cinema

04/10/2022

Newcastle upon Tyne

Warwick Arts Centre

16/11/2022

Coventry

BFI Southbank

07/11/2022

Lambeth,

London

Prince Charles Cinema

10/10/2022

Westminster,

London

The Garden Cinema

29/10/2022

Camden,

London

Broadway Cinema

30/10/2022

Nottingham

Derby QUAD

11/11/2022

- 14/11/2022

Derby

Warwick Arts Centre

16/11/2022

Coventry

Chapeltown Picture House

30/10/2022

Manchester

Hebden Bridge Picture House

29/10/2022

Hebden Bridge

Leeds International Film Festival

04/11/2022

- 05/11/2022

Leeds

Tyneside Cinema

04/10/2022

Newcastle upon Tyne

Chapter

18/12/2022

- 18/12/2022

Cardiff

Creative Stirling

28/10/2022

The Phoenix Cinema

27/10/2022

Kirkwall

Irish Film Institute

23/10/2022

- 23/10/2022

Dublin

Queen's Film Theatre

20/10/2022

Belfast

Storyhouse

11/10/2022

Chester

The Dukes

26/10/2022

Lancaster

Cast:

Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam Waymon

Ganja & Hess is a unique and radically Black take on the vampire genre. With hallucinatory visuals, it not only reshaped the Black imagination, it also changed what vampires could signify on screen. Although director Bill Gunn – riding a wave of blaxploitation bloodsuckers in the early 1970s – said “the last thing I want to do is make a Black vampire film”, he paved a path for Black filmmakers to use genre to say what is unsayable without it.

Black anthropologist Dr Hess Green (Duane Jones) is researching the Mythrians, an ancient African nation who ritually drank blood. When he is stabbed with one of their artefacts, a mystic dagger wielded by his deranged assistant Meda (director Bill Gunn), it awakens an unquenchable thirst. When Meda’s wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) searches for her husband, she is converted and learns to live with the demands put on her by her new life. 

Later remade by Spike Lee (Da Sweet Blood of Jesus), Ganja & Hess gave its star Duane Jones another classic horror title to his name, alongside his lead in Night of the Living Dead. Seeing the African American experience as parallel to the vampire’s experience of violent transformation and complex assimilation, Ganja & Hess articulated a conflicted yearning for freedoms beyond the recent Civil Rights struggle.

Later recut and released in an inferior version, this restoration represents the original release, restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation, and mastered in HD from a 35mm negative.

Please note: Hard-of-Hearing captions are available for this title.

With thanks to Kino Lorber for inclusion in the tour.

Play Dates

This title is no longer available for booking from the ICO

Trailer

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