Hollow Image is a 1979 made for TV drama film that focuses on Harriet Gittens (Saundra Sharp), a black businesswoman who works in the fashion industry as a buyer. Harriet's pursuit of success has taken her far from her Harlem background and past connections there--including ex-boyfriend Danny. Harriet suddenly finds herself torn between her current life "uptown" (glamorous career, fancy NY apartment, lawyer boyfriend) and the life she left behind. A refreshing departure from 70's Blaxploitation fare, Hollow Image is still relevant today. The cast is uniformly excellent, with standout performances from Hattie Winston (Harriet's sassy cousin Ivy), Anna Maria Horsford (Danny's girlfriend who does NOT want Harriet back in the picture), and Morgan Freeman (Sweet Talk who was once a ladies' man, now a junkie.) Plot: A black woman who has left her Harlem roots behind to find success on a white corporate ladder must come to terms with the survivor's guilt she feels when she returns home for a visit. Storyline: A Black New York career girl who has made it big in the fashion world is torn between her new life "downtown" and her roots in Harlem with an old boyfriend still living there. This ABC Theater movie was made at the tail end of the 70's and you can feel the consumerist 80's creeping in; bougie depictions of Black success are contrasted with a portrait of Harlem as a scary place ruined with drugs and crime. The drama is compelling and studded with luminaries like Anna Maria Horsford, Morgan Freeman, Dick Anthony Williams and Hattie Winston. But while the class politics and nuances of the situations shown feel remarkably rare and candid, the film is very careful to avoid laying any blame at the feet of capitalism, racist policing, the drug war, government policies, white supremacy, wealth inequality or anything that might cause white viewers discomfort. It never quite rises above the specifically American myths we are fed when the rare escapees of poverty are waved in everyone's face as proof that anyone can be so fortunate. It also suffers from some colorism in the casting. We do not own the rights to any of this film. This film is being used for historical and educational purposes only. No copyright infringement intended. Black Excellence:
Starring Robert Hooks, S. Pearl Sharp, Dick Anthony Williams
