The vitals:
7:00 ~ Doors
7:30 ~ TROUBLE MAN presented by Black Is Not a Genre

Released one year before his incendiary 1973 political satire, THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR, and just a year after Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, seasoned television and film actor Ivan Dixon (“Hogan’s Heroes,” NOTHING BUT A MAN) made his feature debut with this spartan but polished street thriller. Robert Hooks stars as the unflappable part-time P.I., full-time neighborhood fixer known simply as, “Mr. T” to his South Central L.A. constituents. Dixon used his TV rolodex to assemble a crack team, starting with the Tony Award-nominated Hooks. Also featured are Julius Harris (SUPER FLY), Ralph Waite (“The Waltons”), and Oscar nominee Paul Winfield (SOUNDER). The script was written by SHAFT co-writer and Star Trek scribe John D.F. Black. Then, there’s the music. Marvin Gaye’s only film score, TROUBLE MAN stands firmly alongside SHAFT and SUPER FLY in the pantheon of ‘70s soundtracks. Much like Gaye’s stripped-down funk diverged from Isaac Hayes’ orchestral sensuality and Curtis Mayfield’s cautionary soul, what sets TROUBLE MAN apart from other so-called Blaxploitation titles is its strict adherence to what would become the core tenets of both modern indie filmmaking and prestige television—tight dialogue, erudite storytelling, and a morally ambivalent character study. Unlike John Shaft and Youngblood Priest, Mr. T is neither a cop nor an outlaw, his ‘work’ exists in the gray area between community uplift (shaking down deadbeat landlords) and ambiguous personal gain (impeccable suits and a top-of-the-line Lincoln Continental). Shaft is an apolitical ladies' man with a badge; T is a pro-Black business man with a license to carry. It’s a lean, austere urban noir tucked away in the “Blaxploitation” section, but the social and technical seeds that would bear fruit in Dixon’s radical sophomore masterpiece are all here, hidden in plain sight.

-Graham Cumberbatch

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