Jessie Maple was a pioneer for African American women in the film industry. Before becoming a filmmaker, Maple worked as a bacteriologist and as a writer for the New York Courier. After attending the NET Channel 13 Training School and Third World Cinema in New York, she became the first African American woman to become a member of the union of International Photographers of Motion Picture & Television (IATSE) in New York in 1975. Prior to her acceptance into the union, Jessie Maple served as apprentice film editor for two MGM motion pictures: Shaft's Big Score (1972) and The Super Cops (1974).

Maple complied her experiences of breaking into the union and profession in a book entitled How to Become a Union Camerawoman, Film-Videotape, published in 1977. As a member of the union, during the latter half of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Jessie Maple worked as an assistant cameraperson, cameraperson, and assistant film editor for several television stations in New York, including WABC, WCBS, and WNBC.

Jessie Maple and her husband, Leroy Patton, founded LJ Film Productions, Inc. in 1974 and began producing short documentaries. Their first film, Methadone: Evil Spirit or Wonder Drug (1975-1976), explored the effects of distributing methadone to heroin addicts in order to curb their addiction. Following several short documentaries, Maple produced Will (1981), the first feature-length independent film produced by an African American woman. Will won an award at the Athens International Film Festival and was used as an educational film at many New York drug rehabilitation centers. The film was also actress Loretta Devine's first feature film role. Jessie Maple directed her second feature film, Twice as Nice, in 1988.

In 1982, Maple founded 20 West, Home of Black Cinema in Harlem as a showplace for independent black films. This theater served as an outlet for independent filmmakers to show their films to the public throughout the 1980s before its closing in 1992. The motto of 20 West was: "It makes sense to have a choice."

Jessie Maple discussed her career experiences in two recent doumentaries - Sisters in Cinema (2003) and Women Behind Camera (2007).