Beyond Bushman:
Lovely Jon’s Top 10 Boutique Blu-ray Recommendations


Words by Lovely Jon
October 2024






To commemorate the Other Parties limited edition release of David Schickele's astonishing 1971 cultural meditation Bushman, we navigate the outer reaching leftfield specialised releases microscoping 'the outsider'.  

Again, Other Parties sends out much love and respect to those bespoke labels who genuinely care and
covet such indispensable artefacts of leftsider cinema - salute!



1.  The Brother From Another Planet (1984/US/Director John Sayles/  - Shoreline Entertainment Blu Ray and MGM DVD - US).



What ordinarily appears on the surface to be a 'hang-over' from the 1970's 'Blaxploitation' era turns out to share the closest kinship to Bushman's 'Outcast' reflective deliberation. 



That said, with the great genre journeymen John Sayles at the helm writing and directing you wouldn't expect anything else (Joe Dante's go-to scribe responsible for one of the greatest ‘90s neo-noir westerns Lone Star). 



A mute extra-terrestrial helot escapes the chains of servitude from their far away world landing in early '80s Harlem for a life of freedom and self-discovery. Despite the Alien's appearance resembling a young black man, their 'disguise' is insufficient to integrate them into New York urban life and the deeply fragile complexities vying within the residing inner city cultures.  

Whilst the Alien initially struggles to 'fit in' with modern urban life his wild powers (including a showstopping 'video eye camera' gag) warm him to the oddball local residents who provide friendship and employment.   


Meanwhile, a duo of mysterious bounty hunters (one played by the director himself) are assigned to track down their fellow slave and bring them back to their home planet to continue their former life of subjugation.  

Filmed with low budget DIY street level efficiency but with the warmest endearment, Sayles majestically interprets the old adage of the 'foreigner's journey' via urbanised whimsy and the smartest of veiled scripting (peel off and you have a far reaching, rawer message of how America views its 'underclass non-patriot' denizens).     

Sadly, The Brother From Another Planet was never copyrighted therefore the newly released Shoreline Blu-ray is an unmastered public domain release (hopefully an urgent situation to be rectified in the near future).

Buy:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Brother-from-Another-Planet-Blu-ray/362701/




2. Emma Mae aka Black Sister's Revenge (1976/US/Director Jamaa Fanaka/Vinegar Syndrome Blu Ray - US).



"Look at him! A man who goes on about gang wars and can't even hold his own against a woman!"

Fanaka (one of the true great unheralded directors of black cinema - up there with celebrated agitator Melvin Van Peebles) enjoyed a popular resume within US inner city grindhouses (with his biggest hit Penentiary going mainstream global).  

However, the snag of distribution re-titling plagued the auteur - a curse shared with the incredible Welcome Home Brother Charles (renamed and censored as Soul Vengeance) - also available on a double bill with Emma Mae via Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray disc (thankfully retaining its original title and vision). 

Here, Fanaka riffs on the 'new kid in town/fish out of water' motif so beloved of ‘80s teen cinema (however within his requisite DIY counterculture style - like much of his work you struggle to tell between the pro-actors and the 'genuine' street people inhabiting his quirky individualised urban tales). 

Newly arrived from a quiet farming community in Mississippi to a tough neighbourhood in Los Angeles, vulnerable Emma Mae (theatrical improvisational actor Jerri Hayes), faces the hard cold concrete challenges of inner-city life.  

However, following an initial initiation of teasing and mockery by urbanised peers, she proves her standing by fearless brawling - taking on the most formidable local gangsters on the block whilst romantically entangling with a drop out dope head.  

When her boyfriend is incarcerated alongside a hefty $5000 bail-out, Mae forms a gang to rob the local bank with fortuitous outcomes...

Healthily hip, improvised and ahead of its time (pre-empting the rise of Spike Lee by a good decade), Emma Mae's microscopic dissection of inner cultural difference is a mini classic of its kind and essential viewing for film students and late-night genre buffs.


Buy:

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/welcome-home-brother-charles-emma-mae

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395725659008?_skw=Welcome+Home+Brother+Charles+%2F+Emma+Mae+%28Blu-ray

https://www.lovingtheclassics.com/welcome-home-brother-charles-emma-mae-1975-on-blu-ray-dvd.html



3. Essential Killing (2010/France & Poland/Director Jerzy Skolimowski/Artificial Eye Blu Ray - UK).



A practically wordless odyssey of an Afghan prisoner’s escape into the heartless European raw land of the unknown (namely Belarus), Jerzy 'Deep End' Skolimowski scored deep critical praise for this masterclass in silent tension and cultural alienation (a true 'survivalist' mediation - we the audience are visually shoe-horned in to the Taliban protagonist's desperate journey in to unfamiliar territory and culturally inter personal dead ends, particularly that of language and communication).     

Featuring a stand out, introspective 'less is more' performance from Vincent Gallo (always superior when being directed by others) alongside DOP Adam Sikora's striking dual capture cinematography (equally capturing the harsh, unforgiving woodlands of the Belarus winter alongside Gallo's tortured eyes - saying more about cultural difference and conflict in one single shot than a pages thick screenplay), Essential Killing feels more pertinent and relevant than its initial reception 14 years ago as global culture still refuses to ethnically co-operate in these deeply divided times.


Buy:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Killing-Blu-ray/dp/B005LQB48U


4. All That Heaven Allows (1955/US/Director Douglas Sirk/Criterion Collection Blu Ray - UK).




This may seem like a long shot, however, who said an outsider needs to be a culturised anomaly from impoverished surroundings?   
Our protagonist here, recently widowed middle-aged Cary Scott (Hollywood legend Jane Wyman from The Glass Menagerie) is given the most terrifying gift from her thoughtless adult children - a TV set (ominously shot Hitchcock style by Touch of Evil DOP Russell Metty).

Pretty well much denoting a stereotypical 1950s suburbia 'this is your life now' mantra for the hapless widow - Cary fights back to reclaim her cultural feminised personality via the attentions of a younger man - Rock Hudson's sensitive gardener Ron Kirby with socially aggressive resistance from her children and conservative well-to-do friends. 

As every old school film student knows, this is an innovative 'kitchen sink' classic from the great social dramatist Douglas Sirk (a genius auteur at meshing controversially societal 'taboo' topics alongside super stylish neo-noir visualisations).  

Here, Sirk upends the long-held notion of the 'older female' within nuclear family Americana ideals of the 1950's, directly challenging the notions of cultural acceptability at a time when straying from the 'normalisations of society' meant harsh discommunication and isolation. 

Wyman's committed performance (straying from withdrawn, confused, fragile to fiercely strong willed) is one of her very best as the put upon parent finally releases her social shackles to embrace her inherent outsidership.  


Buy:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Heaven-Allows-Criterion-Collection/dp/B0BQMXQ8CT/ref




5. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019/US/Director Joe Talbot/Lionsgate Blu Ray - US).



An extraordinary first feature debut from out of nowhere talent Talbot that manages to weave intricate cinematic DNA to 1971's Bushman - not only in quirky counter cultural realist style but also cultural socio-political outlook with both films being set on the fringes of San Francisco, a city celebrated for its underground diversity but gradually being sucked away by corporate big business gentrification.

Kickstarted with 31 (!) execute producers and visually similar to Bushman's resolutely off-centre locations (lensed by Adam Newport-Berra) we see an unrecognisable city frequented by unrecognisable individuals who would barely register to a gentrified denizen of 'Fog City', pushed out and living on the barren outskirts whilst awaiting the rich man's bulldozers.

Culturally adrift actor/writer/playwright Jimmy Fails (playing 'himself') decides to squat a beautiful spacious old school Filmore building he believes was built by his grandfather after failing to secure the extortionate rent set by greedy power-landlords.      

Attracting a hive of like-minded artistic outsiders from all cultures and backgrounds - Jimmy attempts to put on a grand play to express his life experiences, however, capitalistic progress (and a surprise revelation) will crowbar this enigmatic dream.

Produced to create a voice for the black community priced out of the Bay Area's housing monopoly (but foretold with whimsical love over anger), Talbot and Fails are backed by a sturdy cast of newcomers and legendary Hollywood figures headed up by Jonathan Majors (as best artist  pal Montgomery), Thora 'Ghostworld' Birch, Danny Glover and Jello Biafra from iconic Bay Area punk legends Dead Kennedys.  


Buy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Black-Man-Fran-Blu-ray/dp/B07TMRS27S/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2AYN6GZFV5M7W



6. Dragon's Return (1968/ Czechoslovakia/Director Eduard Grecner/Second Run Blu Ray - UK).




A classic of ‘60s new wave Czech cinema that somehow manages to come across as 'folk horror' whilst resolutely not being the intention of director Grecner at all (perhaps it's down to Vincent Rosinec's ominous cinematography alongside Ilja Zeljenka's creeped out score that creates this unique genre polar shift).

Following a long, enforced hiatus away from his rural village (steeped in superstitions and 'old wives’ tales') town potter Dragon (Radovan Lukavský) mysteriously returns to his old, abandoned dwelling.

Already an expelled pariah (unjustly ousted for the local folk's belief that his presence brings disaster to their habitat) - corrupt leaders use the wayward loner to rescue the village's coveted livestock herd deep in the forest hills on the onus that the dangerous gesture will enable his re-integration into community life (despite his wife now re-married with a new partner).

Of course, once an outcast always an outcast as the ungrateful community again turns against their oddball 'saviour'.

Directed with intense Leone-esque integrity (facial close ups telling the audience all they need to know about inner prejudice), Grecner (a resolutely non prolific figure) sadly went into TV work far too soon robbing cinema of a one-of-a-kind mercurial talent (with the esteemed director returning to similar loner-led territory until 1993's Pozemsky Anxiety).  

Second Run's beautiful Blu-ray transfer fully captures the auteur's brutalist audio visual vision and is an essential release to all adventurous cinephiles out there.


Buy:


https://www.arrowfilms.com/dragons-return-blu-ray/13965955.html



7. Dingaka (1964/South Africa/Director Jamie Uys/Vic's Rare Films DVD - UK).





Before striking global gold with the whimsical comedy favourite, The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), South African journeyman Jamie Uys highlighted the oppressive Apartheid regime's treatment of its indigenous population (whilst wrestling with the complexities of just lawmaking) with this controversially ahead of its time, angry culture-drama featuring an all-star cast - Stanley Baker, Africa's finest Ken Gampu and Juliet 'G.I. Blues' Prowse.

Gampu (exuding towering magnetism) is Ntuku, the exalted tribal member compelled to leave his rural village and visit the big bad city to locate and execute the killer of his young daughter. 

Committing murder himself, he ends up in court overseen by magistrate Tom Davis (Baker - another magnetic presence more than up to the task of matching Gampu's formidable aura).

Whilst tackling the complexities of the contentious case, Davis becomes a 'fish out of water' himself taking time to engage with Ntuku's tribe to understand his culture and tribal laws. However, despite his admiration and empathy for the proud tribesman the law is the law, and consequences must be administered and adhered to...

Despite its 'travelogue' feel and 'Euro-centric' focus (indeed the film is a rework of a state sanctioned early short by Uys -  The Fox has Four Eyes), Dingaka equally pushes controvertible buttons in regards to culture clash - opening up this fragile divisional debate in such Apartheid-strong days was a risky move for the filmmaker (albeit via his own production company creating an inherent freedom he would not receive via the ingrained Apartheid governmental system). Sadly, the film remains in public domain hell but can be purchased via DIY fan label Vic's Rare Films.


Buy:


www.vicpine.co.uk/Dingaka-1964.htm




8. Ganga & Hess (US/1973/Director Bill Gunn/Kino Blu Ray - US).



A freewheeling improvised lo-fi horror mantra from actor/writer/director Bill Gunn - instigating the inner culturalised notion that even within a rich black heritage there are self-enforced outsiders unable to connect with their 'own people' due to external forces beyond their control.  

Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones from Night of the Living Dead - a wholly enigmatic actor who should have really made it big) lives a solitary, meaningless life after being pierced with a cursed antique dagger. 

A tortured 'intellectual ghoul' with a craving for fresh human blood and nihilistic world view (but still wishing to re-connect with his culture), Green forms a relationship with a former colleague’s widow Ganga Meda (the great Marlene Clarke from Switchblade Sisters).  

Infecting her with the same blood curse, the couple conduct an internalised killing spree luring hapless victims to their eerie mansion for sustenance (truly creeped out set pieces featuring suffocating psychedelic wails alongside Sam L. Waymon's terrifying drones on the soundtrack). However, a liaison with the church abruptly unleashes a hellish outcome that neither bloodsucker can escape from...

One of the truly majestic one-of-a-kind classics of underground black cinema (re-released and re-cut as Double Possession and Blood Couple), the excellent out of print UK Eureka Blu-ray is long gone, however the US Kino Blu-ray is still available - so those who are yet to experience the films arresting wonders do not hesitate!    


Buy:


https://kinolorber.com/product/ganja-amp-hess-blu-ray



9. The Tracker (2002/Australia/Director Rolf De Heer/Umbrella Blu Ray - Australia).



It's 1922 and an in chains Tracker (Walkabout's legendary David Gulpilil) takes a trio of flatfoot deputy's (including the great much missed king of stuntmen Grant 'Mad Max' Page) deep into the Australian outback to locate an Aborigine accused of killing a white woman.

The main lawman known as The Fanatic (Gary Sweet - TV's The Sullivans) is a deeply prejudiced sociopath, however as the group travels deeper into the unforgiving landscape divisions crumble and it becomes unclear who is leading who...

A brutal, exquisitely shot reflection on cultural mores (and how societal superiority can be reversed depending on where one is located), Gulpilil's silent demeanour radiates throughout (even as a 'displaced' outlander while bound in chains he commands the journey from the off and its bleak outcome).  

Released only via Australia's cult film imprint Umbrella - this little seen survivalist gem is well worth tracking down and importing on second hand sites.


Buy:


www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255529560061




10. Moritz Lieber Moritz (1978/Germany/Director Hark Bohm/Zweitausendeins Editions DVD - Germany).



Director Bohm was more well known as a prestigious actor/writer in West Germany's 70's new wave scene (including returnee roles as a quirky doctor in Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul and Despair).  However, with 18 very personal directorial projects under his belt, he was no slouch.

Released in 1978 (something of an apex for the German New Wave movement with Volker Schlöndorff's legendary The Tin Drum just around the corner), Moritz covers similar themes of adolescence, trauma, puberty and polarity albeit in a different contemporary time frame (replacing Word War 2 with the late '70s economic crisis).

15-year-old friendless outsider Moritz comes from a well to do high class family, however, his estrangement and familial bond is broken due to neglectful occupied parents.  When his much-loved grandmother passes, the young rebel's grief turns to savage, spiteful fantasies (featuring some truly horrific, gruesome set pieces straight out of a Cronenberg movie). 

After his father goes bankrupt, the family moves to less prestigious dwellings, however, this turns out to be the making of the boy as he befriends a young woman, Barbara and a cool street level rock band (where he becomes the unit's saxophone player - constructively channelling his anger through the joy of rebellious music).     

Bohm (who also writes) paints a sensitive inner personal portrayal of confused outsider youth (featuring an outstanding, naturalistic performance from Michael Kebschull) alongside a knack for producing wonderfully subversive boundary-pushing adolescent cinema (a kind of agitational John Hughes).

Sadly, only ever receiving a digital DVD release in Germany, this off radar little gem deserves better (for those with the will power and deep pockets there is always the impossible to find UK English subtitled pre-cert video tape on collectable imprint JVI at an eye watering £300 price tag).     

Other salient work from this offbeat director that is worth seeking - I Can Also Build an Ark (1974 - a would-be precursor to Garth Jennings’s wonderfully nostalgic Son of Rambow) and hard-hitting No Time for Tears (1984 - reminiscent of the above reviewed Dingaka this time with a distraught mother killing her daughter’s murderer in a courtroom). 


Buy:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moritz-lieber/dp/B005Z0AL5E


Lovely Jon
10/24
  


 

         

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