Ganja & Hess (1973) Marlene Clark, Duane Jones, Bill Gunn – Eureka! (Begagnad)

Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and the horror cinema, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent film Ganja & Hess is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity.

Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant (director Bill Gunn), endowing him with the blessing of immortality, and the curse of an unquenchable thirst for blood. When the assistant’s beautiful and outspoken wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) comes searching for her vanished husband, she and Hess form an unexpected partnership. Together, they explore just how much power there is in the blood.

Later recut and released in an inferior version, 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.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Beautiful high-definition transfer of the film restored by MoMA and The Film Foundation
• Feature-length commentary with producer Chris Schultz, lead actress Marlene Clark, cinematogropher James Hinton and composer Sam Waymon
• The Blood of the Thing - A interview based documentary on the film with David Kalat
• Select scene commentary with David Kalat
• 24-page booklet featuring a new essay by critic and author Kim Newman and a vintage letter written by Gunn to the New York Times, illustrated with archival images
• Gunn's original screenplay available via DVD-Rom and BD-Rom