As Above, So Below

Directed by Larry Clark – A Radical and Essential Artifact of Black American Cinema

Directed by Larry Clark, a trailblazing filmmaker and theater director trained at UCLA, As Above, So Below (1973) is a revolutionary cinematic dispatch from the heart of the Black radical movement. Clark, who also worked in the L.A. Rebellion alongside Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima, wields cinema as both scalpel and sword, crafting a piece that is less narrative drama and more political ritual. With a cast largely composed of non-professional Black actors—most notably Nathaniel Taylor (of Sanford and Son fame)—the film follows a former Marine’s awakening into revolutionary consciousness as he returns to a racist and economically ravaged America. Filmed with guerilla realism and laced with radical ideology, As Above, So Below plays like Godard by way of Malcolm X.

Its preservation isn’t just important—it’s urgent. This is one of the few American films to depict Black resistance not as reaction, but as strategy, drawing direct lines from police brutality to imperialism, from local oppression to global revolution. For decades, As Above, So Below was virtually lost, circulating only in academic circles or rare archive screenings. Its recent restoration is more than a cultural event—it’s an act of historical correction. In an era obsessed with representation but often devoid of revolutionary substance, Clark’s film offers a fearless and unfiltered lens into the militant heart of 1970s Black liberation. This is a film to be studied, discussed, and preserved as a living, breathing artifact of American resistance.