The Grand Illusion

Jessie Maple became one of the first Black women to direct an independent film with this raw, unflinching portrait of heroin addiction and recovery. Shot on location in Harlem, WILL stars Obaka Adedunyo as the title character, a former All-American basketball star who has fallen from grace because of his dependence on junk. Soon after Will promises his wife, Jean (Loretta Devine, in her screen debut), that he’ll go straight, he becomes a father figure to Little Brother (Robert Dean), a street-tough teen who appears to be following in Will’s footsteps. By wising Little Brother up to the needle’s harsh realities, and by coaching a girls’ basketball team, Will renews his sense of purpose and begins to come out from under the influence—though dangerous temptations loom for both him and his young charge. This landmark of Black cinema was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress and embodies Maple's trailblazing determination to reflect the stories of her community onscreen.

Restored from the 16mm camera negative and magnetic sound elements by the Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA), the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Time-Based Media Archives and Conservation staff, and the Center for African American Media Arts, with generous funding provided by the SI-NMAAHC Robert Frederick Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History.

“A blunt cinematic instrument of immense power… Will’s crisis has a spiritual dimension, and Maple evokes it, dramatically and symbolically, in a wide-ranging and documentary-based view of Harlem.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“A hard-hitting, slice-of-life drama… Maple’s love for her neighborhood and her neighbors is obvious, as she paints an unflinching portrait of the struggle and resiliency of the community.” Tambay Obenson, IndieWire