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==Early life and education==
==Early life and education==
Maple was born in Louisiana in 1947 in a family of 4 brothers and seven sisters.<ref name="Ebony"/> She worked in a bacteriology laboratory and later wrote for the ''New York Courier''. She received film training through programs run by [[WNET]] public television in New York City and [[Ossie Davis]]'s Third World Cinema.<ref name="Ebony"/> She began her career in film as an apprentice editor for ''[[Shaft's Big Score!]]'' and ''[[The Super Cops]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Heyde|first=Paul|year=2006|title=Black Women Filmmakers Forum: An Alternative Aesthetic and Vision|url=|journal=Black Camera|volume=21|pages=15}}</ref> After being admitted to the Film Editor's Union, Maple studied and passed the examination for the Cinematographer's Union.<ref name="Ebony"/>
Maple was born in Louisiana in 1947 in a family of 4 brothers and seven sisters.<ref name="Ebony"/> She worked in a bacteriology laboratory and later wrote for the ''New York Courier''. She received film training through [[Ossie Davis]]'s Third World Cinema, and through the National Education Television Training School, a program run by [[WNET]] public television in New York City.<ref name="Ebony"/> The latter program was established for African Americans to learn behind-the-scenes camera jobs in order to get into the union, but funding for this program was short-lived; as Maple noted, "It was so successful that after one year they shut it down."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World|last=Margolis|first=Harriet|last2=Krasilovsky|first2=Alexis|last3=Stein|first3=Julia|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2015|isbn=978-1-78320-506-6|location=Chicago, IL|pages=10}}</ref> She began her career in film as an apprentice editor for ''[[Shaft's Big Score!]]'' and ''[[The Super Cops]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Heyde|first=Paul|year=2006|title=Black Women Filmmakers Forum: An Alternative Aesthetic and Vision|url=|journal=Black Camera|volume=21|pages=15}}</ref> After being admitted to the Film Editor's Union, Maple studied and passed the examination for the Cinematographer's Union.<ref name="Ebony"/>


==Career==
==Career==
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==Books==
==Books==
* ''How to Become a Union Camerawoman'' (1976)
* ''How to Become a Union Camerawoman: Film-Videotape'', New York, L. J. Film Productions, 1977


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 19:31, 16 February 2019

Jessie Maple is an American cinematographer and film director most noted as a pioneer for the civil rights of African-Americans and women in the film industry.[1] Her 1981 film Will was one of the first feature-length dramatic films created by an African-American woman."[2]

Early life and education

Maple was born in Louisiana in 1947 in a family of 4 brothers and seven sisters.[3] She worked in a bacteriology laboratory and later wrote for the New York Courier. She received film training through Ossie Davis's Third World Cinema, and through the National Education Television Training School, a program run by WNET public television in New York City.[3] The latter program was established for African Americans to learn behind-the-scenes camera jobs in order to get into the union, but funding for this program was short-lived; as Maple noted, "It was so successful that after one year they shut it down."[4] She began her career in film as an apprentice editor for Shaft's Big Score! and The Super Cops.[5] After being admitted to the Film Editor's Union, Maple studied and passed the examination for the Cinematographer's Union.[3]

Career

Following a prolonged legal struggle in 1973, Maple became the first African-American woman admitted to the New York camera operators union.[3][6] She described her lawsuits and struggle in a self-published autobiographical book, How to Become a Union Camerawoman (1976). In 1974, with her husband, Leroy Patton, Maple cofounded LJ Films Productions to produce short documentaries.[7]

In 1981, Maple released the independent feature film Will, a gritty drama about a girls' basketball coach struggling with heroin addiction. With that release, Maple has been cited as the first African-American woman to direct an independent feature-length film in the post-civil rights era.[8][9] In order to show her own film, and other independent movies by African-Americans, Maple and Patton opened the 20 West Theater, Home of Black Cinema in their Harlem brownstone home in 1982.[10] Her second independent feature film was Twice as Nice from a screenplay by poet and actress Saundra Pearl Sharp.[11] Released in 1989, the film is a tale of twin sisters who play basketball.

The Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University holds the papers and films of Maple in the Jessie Maple Collection, 1971–1992.[12]

Selected filmography

Features

Documentaries

  • Methadone: Wonder Drug or Evil Spirit (1976)
  • Black Economic Power: Reality or Fantasy (1977)

Books

  • How to Become a Union Camerawoman: Film-Videotape, New York, L. J. Film Productions, 1977

References

  1. ^ BFC/A (April 12, 2012). "Into The Archive: Exploring the Jessie Maple Collection". Black Film Center/Archive. Indiana University. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  2. ^ Bobo, Jacqueline (2017). "Black Women Filmmakers; a brief history" from The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Gender. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge. pp. chapter 23. ISBN 9781138924956. Jessie Maple and Kathleen Collins...were among the first black women to create long-form narrative dramatic feature films: Maple directed Will (1981) and Collins directed Losing Ground (1982).
  3. ^ a b c d Staff (February 1976). "A Lady Behind the Lens". Ebony. 31 (4): 44–52.
  4. ^ Margolis, Harriet; Krasilovsky, Alexis; Stein, Julia (2015). Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-78320-506-6.
  5. ^ Heyde, Paul (2006). "Black Women Filmmakers Forum: An Alternative Aesthetic and Vision". Black Camera. 21: 15.
  6. ^ "An Evening with Jessie Maple". Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968–1986. The Film Society of Lincoln Center. February 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  7. ^ "Will (1981)". New York Women in Film & Television. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  8. ^ Oxendine, Alice (July 30, 2013). "Remembering Jessie Maple And Her Landmark 1981 Feature-Length Film, 'Will'". Shadow and Act: On Cinema of The African Diaspora. Indiewire. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  9. ^ Holden, Stephen (February 15, 2015). "Films by Jessie Maple in Lincoln Center Series (Film: Fighting for Rights and Making Movies)". New York Times. p. AR4. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  10. ^ Carpenter, Sandy (December 10, 1983). "'Burning An Illusion' Is Cruel Racial Awakening". New York Amsterdam News. 74 (50): 26–27.
  11. ^ "57 Films To Be Saved Through the NFPF's 2015 Preservation Grants". The Film Foundation. June 4, 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  12. ^ "Jessie Maple Collection, 1971–1992". Archives Online. Indiana University. Retrieved 20 January 2016.

Jessie Maple at IMDb

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