Pam Grier To Be Honored at Toronto Black Film Festival
Pam Grier is set to receive her flowers at the upcoming Toronto Black Film Festival.
The veteran actress who became a household name in the 1970s starring in Blaxploitation films like “The Big Doll House,” “The Big Bird Cage,” and “Friday Foster,” and well as cult-classics like “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown” will receive a career achievement award at TBFF’s upcoming 12th edition taking place on Feb. 15.
Regarded for her remarkable performances over 54 years that charted a course for Black actresses, Grier is recognized as a trailblazing female action hero who played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape.
“The award recognizes Grier’s enduring contributions, not only as a captivating actor but also as a trailblazer who has shattered barriers for women and African American performers in the industry, and helped to revolutionize cinema,” the Toronto festival said in a statement.
In 1994, Jackie starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.” She also appeared in “Miami Vice” and “Ghost of Mars.” Her most recent role includes the Tubi thriller “Cinnamon” where she plays Mama, a matriarch of a drug cartel with hearing impairment who relentlessly pursues a desperate young couple entangled in her crosshairs after a botched robbery. Unbeknownst to them, revenge is the sole desire fueling Mama’s relentless pursuit.
“She has blazed a trail for so many Black women in cinema and has left an indelible mark not only in the Blaxploitation genre but on the film industry,” Fabienne Colas, the President and Founder of the Toronto Black Film Festival said.
“Hailed as the Queen of Blaxploitation and the first female action hero, Pam Grier is a consummate screen actress who has helped to spark not one but multiple eras in American Black cinema. Her incendiary performances in iconic roles came at pivotal moments in the industry for both Black representation and representation of women on screen,”
The award comes 35 years after Grier was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer and told she only had 18 months to live. Through treatment she considered “a full-time job,”Grier’s cancer went into remission and she’s continued to thrive in the years since.
“In 1988, the C-word meant: ‘Oh my God, you’re going to die. There is no hope. ‘You learn who your friends are when you have cancer,” she told Guardian in 2011.
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The post Pam Grier To Be Honored at Toronto Black Film Festival first appeared on Black Enterprise.