"Tryin' to Get Over": Super Fly , Black Politics, and Post–Civil Rights Film Enterprise

Abstract

Super Fly was a landmark case of African American participation in major-release filmmaking. The film's narrative about Harlem cocaine dealers dramatized black business dynamism operating inside white-dominated power structures, and this spoke reflexively to the circumstances of the film's making. This essay offers a reappraisal of Super Fly and new perspectives on the blaxploitation cycle in light of post–civil rights opportunities and constraints.