Bush Mama

Inspired after having seen a Black woman in Chicago evicted in winter, director Haile Gerima developed Bush Mama as his UCLA thesis film.  Gerima blends narrative fiction, documentary, surrealism and political modernism in his unflinching story about a pregnant welfare recipient in Watts.  Featuring the magnetic Barbara O. Jones as Dorothy, Bush Mama is an unrelenting and powerfully moving look at the realities of inner city poverty and systemic disenfranchisement of African Americans.  The film explores the different forces that act on Dorothy in her daily dealings with the welfare office and social workers as she is subjected to the oppressive cacophony of state-sponsored terrorism against the poor.  Motivated by the incarceration of her partner T.C. (Johnny Weathers) and the protection of her daughter and unborn child, Dorothy undergoes an ideological transformation from apathy and passivity to empowered action.  Ultimately uplifting, the film chronicles Dorothy’s awakening political consciousness and her assumption of her own self-worth.  With Bush Mama, Gerima presents an unflinching critique of the surveillance state and unchecked police power.  The film opens with actual footage of the LAPD harassing Gerima and his crew during the shooting.

—Allyson Nadia Field

Available for research at UCLA