Twice as Nice

Part of “An Open Window: Black Women Directors across the Diaspora” curated by Erisa Apantaku and J. Michael Eugenio.

After becoming the first Black woman in the New York camera operators’ union, Jessie Maple turned to directing. In Twice As Nice (1989, 70 min.), twin basketball players compete to become the first woman in the “MBA.” The film stars real-life powerhouses Pamela and Paula McGhee, who led USC to back-to-back NCAA championships in the 1980s, and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke. Preceded by Ngozi Onwurah’s Coffee Coloured Children (1988, 15 min.), an affecting meditation on internalized racism.