Two by Jessie Maple
3 Episodes
With her landmark debut feature WILL, pioneering cameraperson turned filmmaker (and all-around Renaissance woman) Jessie Maple became one of the first Black American women to direct an independent feature film, bringing unflinching honesty and stirring emotion to an endearingly tough and tender portrait of a Harlem heroin addict striving to turn his life around. Though she directed only one other feature—TWICE AS NICE, a vibrant tale of twin sisters competing in college basketball to become the first professional draft pick—Maple blazed a trail that would allow a rising generation of Black women filmmakers to tell their own community’s stories on-screen.
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16:35Episode 1Spotlight on Jessie Maple
Episode 1
Learn why curator and author Terri Simone Francis calls Jessie Maple a woman who “contained multitudes” in the following introduction. Not only was Maple a tireless advocate for Black independent film—running a cinema out of her Harlem basement—and the first African American woman to become a uni...
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Will
Episode 2
Directed by Jessie Maple • 1981 • United States
Starring Obaka Adedunyo, Loretta Devine, Robert DeanIn 1981, Jessie Maple became one of the first African American women to direct an independent film with this raw, unflinching portrait of heroin addiction and recovery. Shot on location in Harlem...
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1:08:07Episode 3Twice as Nice
Episode 3
Directed by Jessie Maple • 1989 • United States
Starring Pamela McGee, Paula McGee, Cynthia Cooper-DykeThe second feature by pioneering director Jessie Maple is a wonderfully relaxed, comic portrait of twin sister basketball players Caren and Camilla Parker (played by real-life twins and NCAA b...
