Happy 88th Birthday, Melvin Van Peebles! Born today in 1932 as Melvin "Block" Van Peebles, this African-American novelist, playwright, composer, actor and director is best known for heralding a new era of African-American focused films.
The term for these were called "blaxploitation". It was coined in the early 1970s and referred to black action films that were aimed at black audiences.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Peebles was the son of a black tailor.
Years later, in 1954, Peebles joined the U.S. Air Force. This was thirteen days after graduating with a B.A. in literature from Ohio Wesleyan University,
Peebles stayed for three-and-a-half years in the military. He later married German actress and photographer Maria Marx.
They both lived in Mexico for a brief period, where Peebles painted portraits, before coming back to the United States, where he worked as a cable car gripman in San Francisco, California.
Peebles began writing about his experiences as a cable car gripman. His first, the 1957 American book The Big Heart, credited to Melvin Van, evolved from a small article and series of photographs.
According to Peebles, a passenger suggested that he should become a filmmaker.
Later that same year, Peebles shot, wrote, produced, and directed his first short film. He also later made two more short films during the same period.
About these short films, Peebles says: "I thought they were features. Each one turned out to be eleven minutes long. I was trying to do features. I knew nothing."
As Peebles learned more about the filmmaking process, he found out that "I could make a feature for five hundred dollars. That was the cost of ninety minutes of film. I didn't know a thing about shooting a film sixteen to one or ten to one or none of that sh*t.
Then I forgot you had to develop film. And I didn't know you needed a work print. All I can say is that after I did one thing he would say, 'Well, aren't you gonna put sound on it?' and I would go, 'Oh sh*t!' That's all I could say."
After Peebles completed his first short films, he took them with him to Hollywood to try to find work, but was unable to find anyone who wanted to hire him as a director.
In New York City, New York. he met a man who saw his films and wanted to screen them in France.
In 1970, Peebles' directed an episode of NBC's American sitcom television series The Bill Cosby Show (1969–1971). The episode was called "Really Cool" (S01E26), and aired on April 5 of that same year.
Later that same year, Peebles made his first Hollywood breakthrough with Columbia Pictures in directing the 1970 American comedy/satire film 'Watermelon Man'.
After its release, Van Peebles became determined to have complete control over his next production.
One year later, his next feature became the one of which Peebles is best known for editing, co-composing (along with Earth, Wind & Fire), writing, co-producing, directing, and starring.
It would also be the feature that would spearhead the rush of African-American films known as "blaxploitation".
This was with the groundbreaking independent 1971 American blaxploitation action thriller crime film 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'.
Peebles had also directed the film's marketing campaign, while Cosby co-financed in donating $50,000 to Peebles to complete the project.
The film follows Sweet Sweetback (Peebles), a black orphan who, having grown up in a Los Angeles brothel in the 1940s, now works there as part of a whorehouse sex show.
When the police need a patsy for a murder in the black community, Sweetback's employer gives him up to two white cops, whom Sweetback ends up killing.
Suddenly the target of a massive manhunt, he decides to flee to Mexico. As he makes his way there, he is captured by, and escapes from, both the cops and a chapter of the Hell's Angels.
Peeble's son, African-American film director and actor Mario Van Peebles, also appears in a small role in his father's film, playing the title character as a young boy.
Working as a towel boy, he is raped by one of the prostitutes. The women there name him "Sweet Sweetback" in honor of his sexual prowess and large penis.
Peebles' daughter, Megan, also appeared in the film. She was credited as Kid (as Megan Peebles).
John Amos also appears in a cameo in one his earliest roles. He is credited as Biker. In the credits, his name is written as Johnny Amos.
On a budget of $150,000, 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' went on to gross $15.2 million at the box office. The film's fast-paced montages and jump cuts were novel features for an American feature at the time.
American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet Stephen Holden from The New York Times commented that editing in 'Sweet Sweetback' had "a jazzy, improvisational quality, and the screen is often streaked with jarring psychedelic effects that illustrate Sweetback's alienation."
During shooting, Peebles contracted gonorrhea during one of the many sex scenes, and successfully applied to the Directors Guild in order to get workers' compensation because he was "hurt on the job."
Peebles then used the money to purchase more film. Near its end, an allocation appears on the screen towards the audience, which reads: "This film is dedicated to all the Brothers and Sisters who had enough of the Man."
At a conference on March 22, 1971, Peebles read aloud a letter written to longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Jack Valenti (and generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world) and the MPAA itself. In it, Peebles stated:
“As a black artist and independent producer of motion pictures, I refuse to submit this film, made from Black perspective for Blacks, to the Motion Picture Code and Administration for rating that would be applicable to the black community.
Neither will I “self-apply” an “X” rating to my movie, if such a rating, is to be applicable to Black audiences, as called for by the Motion Pictures Code and Administration rules. I charge that your film rating body has no right to tell the Black community what it may or may not see.
Should the rest of the community submit to your censorship that is its business, but White standards shall no longer be imposed on the Black community.”
Nine days later, on March 31, 1971, 'Sweet Sweetback' would open at the Circus Theater in Detroit, Michigan.
Within five days, the film would gross a staggering $45,534 – an all-time house record. And only two days later it would smash the house record at the Coronet Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. Black cinema, independent American cinema and, perhaps, cinema itself would never be the same.
After 'Sweet Sweetback' received an X rating from the MPAA, this inspired the advertising tagline "Rated X by an all-white jury".
When a theater in Boston, Massachusetts cut nine minutes out of the film, Peebles stated, "Should the rest of the community submit to your censorship that is its business, but White standards shall no longer be imposed on the Black community."
African-American political activist, author, revolutionary and co-founder of the Black Panther Party Dr. Huey P. Newton celebrated and welcomed the revolutionary implications. 'Sweet Sweetback'. Eventually, the film became required viewing for members of the Panthers.
According to Variety, 'Sweet Sweetback' demonstrated to Hollywood that films which portrayed "militant" blacks could be highly profitable, leading to the creation of the blaxploitation genre.
In American film producer, writer, and director S. Torriano Berry's 2001 film criticism book The 50 Most Influential Black Films: A Celebration of African-American Talent, Determination, and Creativity, he talks about his thoughts regarding the film.
He writes "odd camera angles, superimpositions, reverse-key effects, box and matting effects, rack-focus shots, extreme zooms, stop-motion and step-printing, and an abundance of jittery handheld camera work all helped to express the paranoid nightmare that [Sweetback's] life had become."
Although Roger Ebert commented on a review of the 2003 American biopic drama/independent film 'Baadasssss' about the making of 'Sweet Sweetback', he did not consider this example of Van Peebles' work to be an exploitation film.
Mario had co-written, produced, directed, and co-starred in 'Baadasssss'.
Playing his father, Mario offers an unapologetic account of his father's brash and sometimes deceptive conduct on the set of the film.
This included questionable antics like writing bad checks, tricking a local fire department and allowing his son to shoot racy sex scenes at the age of eleven.
Father and son later presented the film together the following year as the Closing Night selection at the 5th Maryland Film Festival in May 2004.
In 2020,'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Peebles has been active from 1955–present.
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