Black films that came out during the 1970’s get too often shortchanged when people dismiss them as just “blaxplotataion” movies. The reality was that there was an extraordinary range of black films released threatrically during that period that dealt with every type of genre from action to dramas to comedies to romance to art house to documentaries. The 1972 film Black Rodeo is a case in point.
The film documents what took place when a traveling black rodeo set up stakes in Harlem one warm summer day in 1971 and as well as chronicling the history and legacy of black cowboys in the West during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Just the sight of Muhammad Ali astride a horse in the film makes it worth viewing as far as I’m concerned and now the film is available on DVD from Scorpion Releasing. That’s the same DVD label which will soon release the long awaited, first ever, DVD release of Georgia, Georgia starring Diana Sands and written by Maya Anglelou which i just recently wrote about HERE.
Here’s the trailer for Black Rodeo: