Melvin Van Peebles, the American actor, director, playwright, and pioneer of modern Black cinema, with films like Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song to his credit, died on Wednesday. He was 89.
Peebles’ son Mario Van Peebles, who is also an actor and director, released a joint statement about his father’s death, along with the Criterion Collection and Janus Films.
“Dad knew that Black images matter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth? We want to be the success we see, thus we need to see ourselves being free. True liberation did not mean imitating the colonizer’s mentality. It meant appreciating the power, beauty and inter-connectivity of all people,” he said.
“In an unparalleled career distinguished by relentless innovation, boundless curiosity and spiritual empathy, Melvin Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape through his films, novels, plays and music,” the statement added. “His work continues to be essential and is being celebrated at the New York Film Festival this weekend with a 50th anniversary screening of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; a Criterion Collection box set, Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films next week; and a revival of his play Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, slated for a return to Broadway next year.”
Peeble’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) was one of the films that marked the beginning of the blaxploitation genre, which “refers to a group of films in the 1970s that featured Black actors in a transparent effort to appeal to Black urban audiences.” Though the term is a pejorative portmanteau of the words ‘black’ and ‘exploitation’, these films were among the first in which black characters were the heroes rather than sidekicks, villains, or victims of brutality. Prior to the 1970s, Black representation in films was scarce.
Like Peebles’ earlier work, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was a low-budget production. “After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a Black male prostitute goes on the run from ‘the man’ with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels,” reads IMDb‘s synopsis of the film. In addition to directing it, Peebles also starred in the film along with other Black actors in lead roles.
The film collected $4 million and is credited as one of the first films to incorporate Black Power ideology, as per Los Angeles Times. It was also heralded by the Black Panther party as a “the first truly revolutionary Black film.”
Mario Van Peebles’ 2003 biographical drama BAADASSSSS traces the difficulties his father had to face to shoot and distribute the film.
Notably, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was only Peebles’ second production, after his debut feature film Watermelon Man in 1970.
Peebles also made documentaries like How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), and plays like The Hostage, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, and Don’t Play Us Cheap, among others.
Several members from the industry, along with studios, paid their last respects to the groundbreaking filmmaker.
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Netflix’s social media handle for the promotion of Black content, wrote, “Rest In Peace to Melvin Van Peebles, Godfather of Black cinema. Your work proved our stories are worth being told on the big screen.”
Barry Jenkins, who directed Moonlight, wrote, “He made the most of every second, of EVERY single damn frame and admittedly, while the last time I spent any time with him was MANY years ago, it was a night in which he absolutely danced his face off. The man just absolutely LIVED.”