USA,
2004, 109 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
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Mario Van Peebles
- prod
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Dennis Haggerty, Mario Van Peebles, Tobie G. Marq Haggerty Roswell
- scr
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Mario Van Peebles, Dennis Haggerty
- cam
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Robert Primes
- editor
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Anthony Miller, Nneka Goforth
- mus
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Tyler Bates
- cast
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Mario Van Peebles, Joy Bryant, T.K. Carter, Ossie Davis, Nia Long
- source
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Sony Pictures Classics, 550 Madison Ave, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022. FAX: 212-833-7911.
-
COMMENTS
Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Van Peebles in person.
OTHER
In 1971 Melvin Van Peebles followed up his first studio picture, Watermelon Man, with an independent film that required more resources and vision than he could imagine. But his conviction to complete and distribute Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song paved new roads in American cinema. Mario Van Peebles draws on his father’s autobiography and creates a fresh take on an old genre—a movie about making a movie. Mario plays his father as well as directs this rich, personal film. Emotionally charged with a patchwork quilt of characters and styles, it is a passionate production about integrity. The story springs from Melvin’s desire to make an authentic drama featuring a Black hero fighting crooked cops—an angle that had never been seen on the big screen before. When the studios wanted a funny picture that featured a funny Black man, Melvin passed and instead tested the boundaries of his own health, family, friends and even cinema itself for the sake of his groundbreaking production. In order to fulfill his dream, Melvin had to buck the studio system, seek financing from some questionable characters, scheme to avoid threatening unions and overcome a negative film crew—not to mention a nagging alter ego. Just another day for another badass.
—Chris Read
FACTOID #208
Before the showing of Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest at the 40th SFIFF, Bay Area editor Walter Murch (who selected the film to screen in the Indelible Images series), passed out fortune cookies to the crowd with Bresson’s musings on making films.
