During the seventies around 200 ‘blaxploitation’ films stylishly mixed punches and politics, offering a popular and radical new representation of black Americans. They created urban black action heroes and spawned a revolution in soundtracks. From Earth, Wind & Fire to Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield, the music was made for the movies but thrived beyond them. Directors like Spike Lee and John Singleton are indebted to the blaxploitation pioneers, as witnessed by Singleton’s upcoming re-make of SHAFT. So get out your leathers and we’ll crank up the volume. To accompany the re-release of the original SHAFT, a short season of Blaxploitation pix.