Jessie Maple, a bacteriologist who took up filmmaking in the 1970s, became the first Black woman to join the camera operators union in New York and went on to direct trailblazing independent films. Maple turned first to journalism and then to film, working as a camera operator and a documentarian before releasing her first feature, “Will” (1981), a family drama that she made for less than $12,000. Jessie Maple passed away at her home on 30 May 2023, in Atlanta. She was 86.
















