#748) Bush Mama (1979)

#748) Bush Mama (1979)

OR “Didn’t Need No Welfare State”

Directed & Written by Haile Gerima

Class of 2022

As of this writing, “Bush Mama” can be viewed on Internet Archive.

The Plot: Dorothy (Barbara O. Jones) is a Black woman living in L.A’s Watts neighborhood with her husband TC and their daughter Luann (Johnny Weathers and Susan Williams). TC is a Vietnam vet that has had difficulty finding work, and when a promising new job finally appears, TC is arrested before his first day for a crime he didn’t commit. Now an unemployed single mother with a second child on the way, Dorothy navigates the complicated world of welfare living, while simultaneously being radicalized by her husband’s prison letters and the ongoing political unrest in her neighborhood.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a rundown of the film and Haile Gerima, stating that the film “resonates as a haunting look at inner city poverty”. The write-up also erroneously lists the film’s release date as 1967.

But Does It Really?: Oh I am very out of my element with this movie. Admittedly, “Bush Mama” is operating on a number of levels I can’t fully comprehend on a first viewing, and tackling such massive issues as race, welfare, and police violence that are far beyond the scope of this little film blog. Still, I appreciated the opportunity to watch a movie so drastically different from almost anything else on this list: marrying a realistic depiction of a struggling woman with some artistic flourishes throughout. I’ll add “Bush Mama” to the list of NFR movies I respected more than I enjoyed, though obviously this film isn’t aiming to be a piece of entertainment but rather something more contemplative. In addition to its inherent uniqueness, “Bush Mama” makes the NFR cut as representation of truly independent filmmaker Haile Gerima, an unsung figure of the L.A. Rebellion.

Everybody Gets One: Born and raised in Ethiopia, Haile Gerima grew up watching Hollywood movies, but had no idea that filmmaking was a career option. As a young adult, Gerima moved to Chicago to study theater, though after a few years moved to California and studied film at UCLA. Gerima quickly became part of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of Black filmmakers focusing on a more realistic and political depiction of Black life as counterpoint to the rise of Blaxploitation movies. The idea for “Bush Mama” came to Gerima a few years earlier in Chicago, when he witnessed a Black woman getting evicted from her house in the middle of winter. Gerima filmed “Bush Mama” in 1975 as his thesis project, though it would not get an official release until 1979.

Other notes

We’re off to a promising start with a cacophony of social workers asking the same standard questions over and over, mixed with Dorothy walking through Watts, culminating with footage of a Black man receiving a “stop and search” from the LAPD. This opening is even more interesting when you learn that the man being searched is director Haile Gerima, who was actually stopped by the LAPD when they declared the film shoot “suspicious”. Not exactly a Hitchcock cameo.

As with many other NFR films by the L.A. Rebellion, different members supported each other’s productions. In this case, the legendary Charles Burnett served as cinematographer for “Bush Mama”.
Longtime readers may remember Barbara O. Jones (later known professionally as Barbara-O) as part of the “Daughters of the Dust” ensemble. As Dorothy, Jones grounds the film, and does a great job of looking forlornly off into the distance, something her character seems to do every five minutes. Fellow “Daughters” cast member Cora Lee Day also makes a strong impression in this film as Molly the social worker.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed visually about “Bush Mama”, from its semi-improvised one take scenes (a hallmark of any low-budget production), to its photo negative transitions. In a film that could easily have been people sitting around and talking, Gerima (and cinematographers Charles Burnett and Roderick Young) keeps things visually engaging. Also keeping things interesting is the film’s non-linear (or is it?) story structure.
The film features a very ‘70s score from Onaje Kareem Kenyatta, their only credited film as a composer (and their only credited film, period.) My one gripe is the very on-the-nose lyrics to a sequence of Dorothy walking the streets alone: “woman walking the streets alone”, etc. They even sing the name of the movie! “Welfare sister, hey Bush Mama”. It reminded me of the Randy Newman bit on “Family Guy” (“Left foot, right foot…”).
The second half of “Bush Mama” definitely takes a turn. As the film starts to focus more on Dorothy’s pregnancy and whether or not she should have the baby, its visual language shifts from its established neorealism to something more experimental and theatrical (I guess that was inevitable from a former theater major and the son of a famous Ethiopian playwright). Side note: The close-up shots of Dorothy’s pregnant belly gave me “All My Babies” flashbacks, and I was convinced I was going to see another live birth.
Technically this movie has an uplifting ending, but it’s presented in the bleakest way possible. No spoilers, but Dorothy is ultimately broken by the system, which completes her radicalization and motivates her to fight back. While I got the gist of it, a lot of the details went over my head and the ending didn’t deliver the way I think Gerima intended. Still, the last few minutes of this movie have stuck with me in a way not a lot of other NFR movie endings have, so “Bush Mama” is doing something right.

Legacy

Fully aware that his options in Hollywood were practically nonexistent, Haile Gerima and his wife Shirikiana Aina focused on financing their own films outside of the studio system with money from teaching jobs (Gerima taught film at Howard University for many years). Gerima’s filmography is limited, but in 1993 he made what is widely considered his masterpiece, “Sankofa”, about a Black model who travels back in time and experiences the horrors of the African Slave Trade. Sankofa is also the name of the bookstore and café the Gerima’s own in Washington D.C., which is still around, by the way.

Upon its initial release, “Bush Mama” received some critical praise, but quickly disappeared. Even within the niche filmography of the L.A. Rebellion, “Bush Mama” has been underrepresented; not receiving any major physical media release and often being excluded from lists of noteworthy L.A. Rebellion films. It has only been in very recent years that “Bush Mama” has started getting its due acclaim, thanks not only to its NFR induction, but also to its 2021 screening at the Academy Museum after being championed by Ava DuVernay, a longtime admirer of Haile Gerima.