Bushman (photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)
Unreleased ‘Bushman’ Pseudo-Doc to Get May 21 DVD, Blu-ray Disc Release
May 13, 2024
The 1971 film Bushman, about a Nigerian immigrant in San Francisco whose life suddenly takes a tragic turn, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc May 21 by Milestone Films and Kino Lorber.
The film was unreleased for more than 50 years.
In 1968, Peace Corps veteran David Schickele enlisted his friend Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam to star in a what was supposed to be a lighthearted drama about the adventures of a well-educated Nigerian immigrant in San Francisco. The film, which uses a docu-fictional style reminiscent of John Cassavetes’ Shadows (1959), morphs into a documentary when the director’s voice abruptly intrudes to narrate its star’s fate: Okpokam was accused of a crime he did not commit and found himself at the mercy of the U.S. justice system.
Unreleased for more than 50 years, the new restoration of Bushman premiered at the 2023 Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy. Since then, the film has gone on to screen throughout the United States and in Austria, Norway, Australia, Belgium, Japan, England, Germany, Denmark and France.
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Bushman has been restored (both on 4K and 35mm) by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.