Episode 34
Ganja and Hess
February 12, 2024
Director: Bill Gunn // Starring: Duane Jones & Marlene Clark
This week, Dave and Bryan celebrate Black History Month with a look at Bill Gunn's delirious 1973 vampire movie, Ganja & Hess, which stars Gunn, Marlene Clark, and Duane Jones from Night of the Living Dead. It's a sleepy, dreamy art film about black identity, gender, class, and the loneliness of a man without ancestry as damaged people deal with themes of blackness in America through the gauzy lens of a vampire movie. Often lumped in with blaxploitation movies like Blacula and Shaft, it is anything but.