In 1975, Tillman became inspired to create his own films after seeing the film, "Cooley High". To Tillman, "Cooley High" spoke to the African American audience in both tears and laughter, and Tillman decided he wanted to contribute to that medium, but did not necessarily know if he wanted to become an actor, writer or director. In 1973, when Tillman watched "Five on the Black Hand Side" and "Claudine" in 1974, he felt empowered and knew he wanted to become a filmmaker. "Those were the films that made me realize that African American films- this is before they started calling some films of that era Black exploitation films-spoke for us, and I wanted to be involved with that."