Citazioni

[on making 1970s "blaxplotation" films] You were working on pictures that the industry had nothing but contempt for. There was a lot of racism in the industry, a lot of it was under the surface, but it was here. And the executives at the studios really had contempt for the audience they were making movies for. It was an uphill struggle to try to do anything really good.

I had the freedom to improvise. I feel quite fortunate that I worked in the low-budget sector because it meant I did not have to deal with committees who wanted to impose their ideas and prejudices on my material. I had a free hand--much more so than I would have had if I was working for the studios. As long as you put the elements in there that producers like Corman [Roger Corman] knew they could sell, such as sex and violence, you could raise the picture a little higher than expected and give the audience something intelligent to chew on.

I always wanted people to feel positive at the end of my films. I was always careful to try and juxtapose humor with the violence and tragedy. I think I accomplished that, and perhaps that is why a generation or two later my films are still popular and in-demand while many of the mainstream movies I was up against at the time, and truth be known, I was quite envious of, are now forgotten.

[why the Blaxploitation genre stopped by the end of the 1970s] No longer needed. There were plenty of black characters and lifestyles appearing in mainstream films by that time.

[Blaxploitation] It's an unfortunate term most likely invented by somebody in that trade papers. It didn't exist when I was working. Everybody used the term "black pictures," which was demeaning, and unfortunately stuck onto me when I tried to get more mainline projects to direct.

[how he got started in films] I just kind of fell in. Most of the people I knew were really into film and going to watch all the movies and talking about films and blah blah blah. I just kind of - cause I was a musician actually - I got into film because I wanted to learn how to score motion pictures. I would just get hired to work on movies and get hired to make them. So I basically just did what I was able to get a job doing, you know?

[why he often cast actor Sid Haig] Because he's such a remarkable individual personality. He's also a very, very skilled actor that I tended to write almost with him in mind.