You Won’t Bleed Me treats the genre and its art with the reverence it was previously denied, focusing on both its shortcomings and successes. Despite not being well-received by critics (the New Yorker called Melvin Van Peebles’ 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song “furiously tasteless”) and some civil rights organizations, Blaxploitation was the interaction of Black life and Black people colliding with traditionally white cinema. The genre laughed in the face of taboos, deliberately depicting subjects considered gauche in the American consciousness like revenge against white oppressive figures, interracial romances and underground societies. The oft-imitated cultural film style lasted from 1970 to 1979 and introduced stars like Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite, Brenda Sykes, Pam Grier, Fred Williamson and more to larger audiences. Photograph: Robert Feliciano/Courtesy of Poster House and Mathieu Bitton Slaughter, 1972 designed by George Akimoto. I totally understand people’s reservations about the movies but, at the same time, I think they’re interesting and there’s usually almost always something to take out of any of them that might be useful.”

For everybody who thinks these Blaxploitation movies are campy fun, there’s a lot of people who think they are really off-putting and problematic,” Howard reiterated. Sourced from collector Mathieu Bitton, the posters communicate the distinctive and distinguishing tone and style of the Blaxploitation films featured. The exhibit, displayed in chronological order, examines these posters as historical documents in the larger socio-artistic movement. It evokes a lot of feelings in people,” said Adam Howard, curator of the new Poster House exhibition, You Won’t Bleed Me: How Blaxploitation Defined Cool and Delivered Profits.Ĭurated by Full Frontal with Samantha Bee associate producer and avid movie poster enthusiast Howard, You Won’t Bleed Me displays the posters and other marketing materials like soundtracks of the rebellious Blaxploitation era. “There are very few people you encounter who have no opinion or have no reaction to it. They forwardly promote sex and violence yet ooze cool, meant to show the tone of the film in a glimpse in lieu of large promotional budgets. Blaxploitation posters are brightly colored, sexy and intense, with vignette snapshots clustered together.

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