Learn why curator and author Terri Simone Francis calls Jessie Maple a woman who “contained multitudes” in the following introduction. Not only was maple a tireless advocate for Black independent film—running a cinema out of her Harlem basement—and the first African American woman to become a union camperaperson, she directed a trailblazing pair of human-scale films that found touching human drama and philosophical profundity on the streets and basketball courts of New York City.