A Day in the Life of Willie Faust, or Death on the Installment Plan

A critical version of Faust’s blood pact, playing on Blaxploitation codes: drugs are “death on the installment plan”. Jamaa Fanaka, who died in 2012, made three other films during his studies at UCLA, in line with his vision of Blaxploitation: Welcome Home, Brother Charles (1975), Emma Mae (1976) and Penitentiary (1979). The latter was a huge box-office success and led to two sequels in 1982 and 1987. In 1994, Fanaka founded the Directors Guild of America’s African-American Steering Committee, to fight the Hollywood film industry’s discrimination against ethnic minorities and women.