Ganja and Hess: Tuesday, March 10 at 6:45 PM - Siegler Hall

The conference will kick off Tuesday, March 10, at 6:45 pm, with the special pre-conference screening of the original version of the classic vampire film, Ganja and Hess (starring Duane Jones, of Night of the Living Dead fame and Marlene Clark), sponsored by the Micheaux/Washington Black Film Series at Essex County College. The film will be shown in Siegler Hall (2nd Floor), and will be introduced by Prof. Tracee Thomas, who teaches The History of African American Cinema (CIN 103) at the College.

Director Bill Gunn

Although released in 1973 during the "blaxploitation" era of American cinema, director Bill Gunn transgressed cinematic horror conventions by producing a complicated, richly textured work of art that infuses African spiritual practices, Western philosophical ideas, and familiar images of vampires and blood into an intricate film that is now regarded as classic American post-modernism. Director Spike Lee's remake of Ganja and Hess was recently released as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. The screening is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 pm.