ENGLEWOOD — When “Cooley High” was released in 1975, the scrappy cast and crew had no idea they were creating a coming-of-age classic.
The film follows best friends and protagonists Leroy “Preach” Jackson (Glynn Turman) and Richard “Cochise” Morris (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) who live in housing projects on Chicago’s Near North Side. Over the course of a few days in 1964, they and their pals tease gorillas at Lincoln Park Zoo, play basketball on North Clybourn Avenue, visit a diner at the corner of Elm and Larrabee streets and take part in a few brawls and police chases.
Before the weekend is over, the fate of the two friends will be irrevocably altered.
Fifty years after its release, the Chicago International Film Festival will commemorate the anniversary with a free screening 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kennedy-King College Theater, 740 W. 63rd St.
Although online RSVPs for the event are currently full, a representative at CIFF told Block Club that some standby tickets may be available that evening. If you haven’t RSVP-ed yet, he suggested getting to the venue before the doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the best chance at standby tickets.
Directed by Michael Schultz and written by former Cabrini-Green resident Eric Monte, “Cooley High” is a time capsule that captures what life was once like in the now-gentrified Cabrini-Green neighborhood. The Motown-filled soundtrack — featuring “Baby Love” by the Supremes and “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops, among other hits — helps transport the viewer to the days of 1964 Chicago, when the film is set.
Today, Cooley Vocational High School is a community of gated apartments. Overgrown vines and weeds now sprout where the protagonists once lived and played.
“I hope that people will realize the importance that this film has for not only telling a story, but for documenting history,” said Pemon Rami, a writer and director as well as former director of educational and public programs at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Washington Park. “When you look at ‘Cooley High’ and they get on that bus and they ride through that community that is now the Apple Store and Crate & Barrel, history is documented in the visuals of those films in that era.”
Rami worked with Schultz to do preliminary location research for the film and help cast its star parts, he said.
“Cooley High” was responsible for jumpstarting the careers of local powerhouses like Jackie Taylor, founder of the Black Ensemble Theater in Uptown. Movies like John Singleton’s 1991 debut “Boyz N the Hood” likely wouldn’t exist without “Cooley High” to pave the way.
Wednesday’s event will feature a panel discussion with Rami, Taylor, Grow Greater Englewood’s Anton Seals Jr. and WGN producer Tyra Martin immediately following the screening.
“I think the film was so popular and is so popular because it shows the strong side of what it means to be Black in Chicago,” Taylor said. “The film showed the opposite of what was perpetuated [about] Cabrini-Green. The film showed the truth. We were a family. We had ups and downs like any other family, but we cared about each other. We supported each other and we helped each other.”
‘Uplifting Our Communities’
“Cooley High” is an autobiographical story based on Monte’s life ditching school, making friends and “doing some crazy things” while growing up in the Cabrini-Green projects, he said in a 2006 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
When people talked about crime and violence in America at the time, Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and Cabrini-Green in Chicago were always at the center, Monte said. But he had “one of the best childhoods imaginable,” with best friends and the greatest mother, he said. He wrote “Cooley High” to depict that side of life, he said.
Monte quit his job as co-creator of the Black-family sitcom “Good Times” to focus on “Cooley High” because he “knew it was going to be a hit,” he said.
The film earned $13 million at the box office on a $750,000 budget.
“When we were developing movies during that period of time, the purpose was to uplift the people that were watching it and to uplift our communities to make them feel better about themselves,” Rami said. “The nature of ‘Cooley High’ to me has more to do with the ability to show what friendship was like, what male relationships were like, and also what the times were like. It was the first opportunity that we had to see our people in that light.”
Focusing On Humanity
Making “Cooley High” feel real extended beyond the page.
Rami, an artist with connections across the city, cast aspiring actors from the local theater scene — many who’d never starred in a movie before, he said.
When scouting locations, Rami met with members of the street gangs in Cabrini-Green to inform them about the movie, he said. Some of the cast were real members of a local gang in Chicago.
“That was part of my responsibility, going in and doing locations to get people to know that we had their best interests at heart,” Rami said.
Taylor was one of the film’s breakout stars. She plays Johnny Mae, one of Cochise’s love interests.
Taylor, who grew up in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood, could recognize some of the characters Monte was referencing in the film, she said. The experience of acting in a film so close to home “touched my heart,” she said.
“[Cabrini-Green] was simple,” Taylor said. “We were young kids, doing what young kids do, and we all had ambitions.”
The film is just as important now as it was when it was released, she said.
“‘[Cooley High]’ focuses on humanity,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t focus on the violence of humanity, except to say violence is ignorant and it should not be tolerated by anyone. It resonates because people can relate to it and the emotions from it are human emotions.”
‘Somebody Has To Win’
Like the similarly themed 1973 coming-of-age film “American Graffiti,” “Cooley High” ends with epilogue-like updates on the characters’ lives. One is inspired to go to Hollywood and become a successful screenwriter to commemorate his friends.
At its core, that success is what makes “Cooley High” stand the test of time, Rami said. The movie is real in its portrayal of Black communities, but there’s still a “win” that brings us back to the film, he said.
“Somebody has to win at the thing, to not only be able to tell the story, but also to be able to reflect all our future possibilities,” Rami said. “I hope that, as people look back at this film, they realize the importance of storytelling is identifying who you’re writing for, why you’re writing the story and what you want people to do once they see it.”
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