10 Lost Blaxploitation Films That Are Almost Impossible To Find

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:02]Hello, Manny. What are you doing here?

[00:00:04]>> You know what I'm doing here. Solomon must have sent me. Oh, Ali.

[00:00:07]>> Yeah, that was bad business.

[00:00:08]>> Hey, you got a line on the sniper yet.

[00:00:10]What are you all doing about it?

[00:00:11]>> But I'm giving this case top priority.

[00:00:13]>> Top priority, bull. Say, Ali, I don't trust you. I don't trust no one in the CIA department. If you can't handle it, my brother and I can.

[00:00:22]>> If you and King get involved, I can't help you. This is government business.

[00:00:26]>> Government business.

[00:00:28]There are films that got buried not because they were bad, not because nobody cared, but because the system, the studios, the distributors, [music] the gatekeepers just let them disappear.

[00:00:41]We're talking about black's plotation.

[00:00:44]The era that gave black cinema its swagger, its [music] teeth, its voice.

[00:00:50]And somewhere out there, sitting in a warehouse, a vault, or somebody's attic, 10 of those films are still missing. You can't stream them. You can't buy them.

[00:01:00]In some cases, you can't even find a trailer. This is the story of 10 lost black exploitation films that are almost impossible to find. Number 10, The Limit. We start with the one that should have been a slam dunk. Yafett Cotto, the man you know from Live and Let Die from Alien from Midnight Run, decides he's going to write, direct, [music] and star in his own film. That film was called The Limit. The plot is straightforward.

[00:01:28]A black cop goes up against a motorcycle gang after they target him and his girl.

[00:01:33]It's got action. It's got tension. It's got that raw [music] 1970s street energy that made the whole era pop. Ted Cassidy, lurch from the Adams family, shows up as the gang leader. The cast is there, [music] the concept is there, and then it vanished. After its original theatrical run [music] in 1972, The Limit was largely unavailable and not commercially released on home media. No VHS, [music] no DVD, no Blu-ray. All that's left are a couple of posters, a handful of production stills, and a review from the Chicago Daily News that somebody found pasted on the back of one of those stills. A man made his directorial debut, and the world [music] just lost it. Number nine, Solomon King.

[00:02:22]You >> know, some people just don't listen to a damn thing you tell them.

[00:02:27]>> From a man who wore every hat on set to a film that [music] almost disappeared.

[00:02:31]Solomon King is one of the most ambitious projects of [music] the black exploitation era, Sal. Watts co-wrote, co-directed, and starred as a former Green Beret pulled into an international conspiracy. Think James Bond, but built from the ground up outside the studio system. It had a release. People saw it and then it vanished. For decades, Solomon King was basically a ghost. No distribution, no preservation, just a title floating around in film history [music] until it came back. The film was eventually restored and re-released.

[00:03:04][music] But that comeback doesn't erase the gap. For years, one of the genre's most forward-thinking [music] films was simply gone. And for a film this ambitious, that disappearance says a lot. Number eight, The Long Night/Steely Brown.

[00:03:20]>> Several studies have indicated that well that black people are stifled with so many other little problems.

[00:03:27]>> Speaking of films that tease you, The Long Night, also known as Steelely Brown, might be the crulest case on this list. Here's why. The 35 mm trailer was actually found. [music] Film hunters tracked it down. There was even a reported screening in New York City at some point. [music] And then it disappeared again. The 1976 film follows a tough, street hardened protagonist navigating a world of crime [music] and survival. The kind of gritty urban story that defined the tail end of the black exploitation era. The trailer alone is enough to make you want to see [music] the whole thing. But right now, that's all there is. A trailer, a ghost of a film that was briefly in the room and then walked right back out the [music] door. Number seven, Black Chariot. Some films disappear because of [music] bad luck. Black Chariot reportedly disappeared before most people even knew it existed. Released in 1971, right at the dawn of the black exploitation movement, Black Chariot is one of the earliest entries in the genre and one of the least documented. The film centers on a black man navigating the corrupt machinery of the music industry, trying to hold on to his integrity while the business tries to grind him down. It's a story that would have resonated hard in 1971.

[00:04:43]It still [music] resonates today, but almost nothing survives. No wide release, no archival preservation. Darak lists it [music] as one of the films they're actively trying to locate, and so far nothing. Black Chariot is a film that arrived right at the beginning of a revolution and got left behind before the revolution even got started. [music] Number six, Black Cream. From the music industry to something far more underground, Black Cream from 1972 is one of the most obscure entries on this entire [music] list. Details are scarce, which is part of what makes it so fascinating. No verifiable production details exist, but what's known is that it existed, it was released, and [music] it has essentially vanished from the historical record. Derek has it flagged.

[00:05:33]Film historians have noted it, but no print, [music] no tape, no digital copy has surfaced. There's something almost poetic and deeply frustrating about a film called Black Cream disappearing so completely. It's as if the title itself was a warning, rich, layered, and gone before anyone could hold on to it.

[00:05:53]Number five, Superdude/ the hangup.

[00:05:57]>> Someone slipped your whole room, made a hot shot.

[00:06:00]>> You didn't come to the studio by accident. Now, here's one that gives you just enough hope to drive you crazy.

[00:06:07]Super Dude, also released as The Hangup from 1974, actually exists. It's sitting in the American Genre film archive in Austin, Texas. It has been screened once at an Alamo Draft House. Once the film follows a biracial cop torn between two worlds, black and white, as he tries to navigate his identity while working a case that keeps pulling him deeper into moral gray areas. It's a character study wrapped inside a crime thriller. And by all accounts, it's exactly the [music] kind of film that deserves a proper release, but it hasn't gotten one. The AGFA has it. Film fans know it exists.

[00:06:47][music] And still the average person has no way to watch it. It's found and lost at the same time, which might be the most black exploitation thing about it.

[00:06:57]Number four, Abby.

[00:06:59]>> And I know you wanted me here to greet your father. It's been a long time, Reverend.

[00:07:05]>> This one isn't lost because of neglect.

[00:07:07][music] It's lost because somebody came after it. Abby hit theaters in 1974 and became an immediate hit. Directed by William Girdler and starring Carol Speed in the title role, the film follows a minister's [music] wife who becomes possessed by a Eurora spirit. A raw, terrifying, deeply spiritual horror film that [music] connected with black audiences in a way Hollywood hadn't seen coming. Warner Brothers saw it coming, though. They sued, claiming Abby was a ripoff of The Exorcist. [music] They won. The film was pulled from theaters mid-run while it was still making money [music] and has never received an official home video release in the United States. Carol Speed gave everything to that role. William Girdler built something genuinely frightening [music] and a lawsuit buried it. Even today, Abby hasn't disappeared completely. Bootleg copies still circulate, but officially it remains locked away. A film that survives in the shadows rather [music] than the system.

[00:08:06]Number three, speeding up time.

[00:08:08]>> Hey, what's happening, bro?

[00:08:09]>> Oh, ain't nothing. What's going on?

[00:08:11]>> Not too much. You're Frank, aren't you, man?

[00:08:12]>> Yeah, Frank. You're a new man.

[00:08:14]>> Back to 1971 [music] and back to a film that barely left a footprint. Speeding Up Time is one of the earliest and most elusive films of the entire black exploitation era. Shot on a shoestring, [music] the film captures the street level reality of black urban life with a rawness that bigger budget productions couldn't touch. It's the kind of film that was made by people who had something to say and not much money to say it with. That authenticity is exactly why it matters.

[00:08:43]And it's exactly why its disappearance stings. No wide distribution, [music] no preservation, just a title, a few records, and the knowledge that somewhere out there, [music] a piece of early black cinema history is sitting in the dark. Number two, Black Fist.

[00:09:01]>> I mean, I'm getting out of the fight game. Look, I'm trying to buy that club from Wilson.

[00:09:05]>> Honey, we don't have that kind of money.

[00:09:07]>> By 1975, the black's exploitation era was starting [music] to shift and Black Fist landed right in that moment.

[00:09:14]Starring Richard Lawson, the film follows a man pulled into the world of underground street fighting where survival, pride, and power all come at a cost. It's [snorts] raw, stripped down, and focused more on struggle than spectacle. [music] a story about what happens when the system leaves you with no good options. Blackfist did get a release. It wasn't buried overnight, but it also wasn't preserved, promoted, or carried forward the [music] way other films from the era were. Today, it exists, but barely in the conversation.

[00:09:46]No [snorts] major restoration, no cultural reappraisal, no real place in the legacy of the genre it came out of.

[00:09:54]And that's a different kind of disappearance. Not a film that was lost, a film that was left behind. Number one, Countdown at Cusini/cool Red. We close with a film that wasn't lost, but came dangerously close to being forgotten.

[00:10:10]Countdown at Cusini, also known as Cool Red, arrived in 1976 with a vision far bigger [music] than most films in the genre. Produced with the involvement of Delta Sigma Theta and shot on location in Nigeria, [music] it starred Ruby D and Aie Davis alongside a cast of Nigerian actors in a [music] story that bridged black American identity and African liberation. It was bold, political, international, and it [music] didn't connect at the box office. The film never disappeared entirely. Prince survived and it surfaced in academic screenings and archival [music] circles over the years, but it was never widely distributed, never fully restored for mass audiences, never given the platform its ambition called for. So, while Countdown at Cusini isn't missing, it's still out of reach for most people. A Pan-African landmark that exists but hasn't been fully seen. Thanks for watching. If you love diving into these underrated [music] black exploitation classics, there's plenty more cinema history waiting for you. Check out our next video. Explore deeper stories.

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