PENITENTIARY

Details

• Release Year: 1979
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: Jamaa Fanaka's raw and violent indictment of prison life is a masterpiece of Urban Cinema and was the most successful independent film of 1980. A potent comdination of 'blaxploitation' prison film and social commentary, PENITENTIARY busted genres and galvanized audiences from the are houses to the inner city, becoming the cornerstone of urban independent film for generations to come.; ; The film tells the story of Martel Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy in his first starring role), a hitch-hiker who gets into a fight with a pair of bikers over a prostitute. One of the bikers dies and Martel finds himself in prison with the moniker 'Too Sweet' because of his love of candy bars. Soon he is a hardened but pragmatic inmate who joins the prison boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole.; ; But standing in his path is Half Dead Johnson (Badja Djola-Miississippi Burning, The Serpent and the Rainbow), a member of th e prision's most violent gang. Half Dead's sadistic cruelty and Too Sweet's raw determination culminate in a brutal and shocking climax that puts all previous boxing films to shame!
• Cast: Wilbur 'Hi-Fi' White, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Thommy Pollard, Hazel Spears, Donovan Womack, Floyd 'Wildcat' Chatman, Gloria Delaney, Badja Djola, Chuck Mitchell, Cepheus Jaxon, Dwaine Fobbs, Ernest Wilson, Will Richardson, Elijah Mitchell, Tony Andrea, Darrell Harris, Lonnie Kirtz, Ray Wolfe, Charles Young, Ellsworth Harrell, Cornelius Desha, Michael Melvin, Steve Eddy, Irene Stokes, Bill Phillips Murry, Teri Hayden, Herman Cole, Carl Irwin, Irving Parham, Warren Bryant, Lorri Gay, Thomas Earl Stiratt, Jamaa Fanaka, Joaquin Leal, David Carter, Hassan Abdul-Ali, Marcus Gutierrez, Zee Howard, Gwynn Pineda, Ann Hutcherson, Cardella Di Milo, Beverly Wallace, Onia Fenee, Deloris Figueroa, Zeola Gaye, Jackie Shaw, Brenda Joy Griffin, Reneé Armanlin, Sarah Jaxon, Barbara Torres, Irene Terrell, Lisa Visco, Shelli Hughes, Tony Rapisarda, Casey J. Littlejohn, Edgardo Williams, Tyrone S.B. Thompson, Sam Olden, Roderic Williams, Dominic Giusto, William Bey, Shawn Davis, Johnny Jones, Robert Wayne Cornelius, Quitman Gates, Ian Foxx
• Director: Jamaa Fanaka
• Runtime: 1:39
• Company: Xenon Pictures
• Media Format: Movie