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Two by Jessie Maple

Spotlight on Jessie Maple

16m

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 union cameraperson, she directed a trailblazing pair of human-scale films that found touching human drama and philosophical profundity on the streets and basketball courts of New York City.

Up Next in Two by Jessie Maple

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    Will

    Will

    Directed by Jessie Maple • 1981 • United States
    Starring Obaka Adedunyo, Loretta Devine, Robert Dean

    In 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...

  • Twice as Nice
    1:08:07
    Twice as Nice

    Twice as Nice

    Directed by Jessie Maple • 1989 • United States
    Starring Pamela McGee, Paula McGee, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke

    The 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...

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