An Interview with Director Scott Sanders of Black Dynamite

Scott Sanders is the director of Black Dynamite, an award-winning film that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. By crafting a comical spoof of the blaxploitation genre, Sanders time travels to the 1970s and takes his audience along for the ride. Along with Michael Jai White, who plays the film’s lead character, the cast includes a host of up-and-coming actors, as well as special cameo appearances by Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson, and Nicole Sullivan.

Upon the DVD release of Black Dynamite, Scott Sanders managed to squeeze some time out of his busy schedule to settle down for an interview with Clayton Perry—reflecting on Afro-zodiac posters, special filming techniques, and humorous moments on the set.

As you signed on to direct Black Dynamite, what kind of background research did you conduct to capture the mood, language, and props for the film?

Well, I had already been familiar with a lot of the main themes of blaxploitation and I had seen a lot of the basic films – especially the ones that starred Jim Kelly, Jim Brown, and Fred Williamson. And we eventually just started watching all of them one by one. We watched the good ones, the bad ones, and wanted to kind of mix them all up in the Cuisinart and have one that was sort of definitive, at least to us, of all of them. We tried to weigh that out with like Soul Sisters Revenge and—I’m trying to think of some of the wackier ones—Darktown Strutters; all of the blaxploitation films I think had some influence on us. But there are some in particular that were stronger for us than others.

During the sex scene between Gloria and Black Dynamite, I thought it was clever for you to use cartoon imagery instead of having a stream of gratuitous nudity. How did that idea come about?

Well, I knew I wasn’t going to get Salli Richardson naked! [laughing] So I thought, well, what can we do to just represent that they had sex? And it seemed like a very '70s answer to use the Afro-zodiac poster. I remember those when I was a little kid, in my uncle’s basement. They’re these sex position posters, and I just thought it was fitting for the time period.

In addition to that particular scene, is there one that's particularly memorable, perhaps because it was difficult to shoot or it required a unique filming technique?

Article Author: Clayton Perry

Over the past few years, Clayton Perry has interviewed some of the BIGGEST entertainers in music, film and television. Check out his digital archive with 180+ definitive conversation pieces.

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