Ganja & Hess

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1972 to December 31, 1972
Dates Note: 1972
Country of Origin: United States
Place of Origin: United States
Languages:
Color: Color
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:

This edition represents the original release, restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation, and mastered in HD from a 35mm negative.

Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
African Film Festival 2019
Description: 

Though it was suppressed by the commercial system, this key film by Bill Gunn became an underground classic. Ishmael Reed called it “one of the most beautiful and unusual films ever produced in the United States.” Filmed on location in Gunn’s beloved Hudson River Valley, it is a vampire tale that seems at once ancient and modern—a clash of African mythology, Western art, and fundamentalist Christianity. When Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones), a distinguished anthropologist and geologist, is stabbed by his assistant (played by Gunn) with an artifact from an ancient civilization, he becomes immortal, stricken with an unquenchable thirst for blood.

Authors/Roles: 

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