Ganja & Hess: "A radically Black take on the vampire genre"

Black anthropologist Dr Hess Green (Duane Jones) is researching the Mythrians, an ancient African nation who ritually drank blood. When he is stabbed with one of their artefacts, a mystic dagger wielded by his deranged assistant Meda (played by director Bill Gunn), it awakens an unquenchable thirst.

October means two things at Broadway - Black History Month, and Halloween. This year, we're very pleased to present a 1973 film that sits firmly in both categories - Bill Gunn's... Ganja & Hess.

Described as a "radically Black take on the vampire genre"... Blaxploitation...

...- later remade by Spike Lee in 2014 as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus - Lee described director Bill Gunn as "one of the most underappreciated filmmakers of his time." 

Its star Duane Jones had already secured his place in horror history with his trailblazing role (and film debut) in George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead, becoming the first Black actor cast as the lead in a horror film.

Ganja & Hess is showing at Broadway on Sunday 30 October at 7.30pm.