Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, pioneer of "Blaxploitation", dies at 89
Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, here in Deauville, during the 38th American Film Festival, September 5, 2021 © Charly Triballeau, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The world of cinema loses a pioneer: Melvin Van Peebles has just died at the age of 89, at his home in New York.
This multi-faceted artist, director but also singer and writer, opened the door to a generation of black directors in the 1970s, with the style of “Blaxploitation”.
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Melvin Van Peebles was nicknamed "
the godfather of black cinema
".
This avant-garde trained in France in the 1960s,
close to the team of the French satirical weekly
Hara Kiri
, was one of the first African-American filmmakers to work for a studio.
He signed in 1970 for Columbia
Watermelon Man
.
This comedic and political reinterpretation
of Kafka's
Metamorphosis
shows a deeply racist white man who wakes up one black day.
But the landmark film is
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
: Melvin Van Peebles wrote the screenplay, produced for barely $ 500,000, directed, performed
and composed the music
for this story of a gigolo chased by the police after he was killed. a racist officer.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
in 1971 met with immense success in the United States: $ 14 million in revenue despite mixed reviews.
The film marks the birth of a cinematographic movement:
“
Blaxploitation
”
, carried by a new generation of black directors who are making their mark with films like
Shaft
and
Foxy Brown
.
Without Melvin Van Peebles, there might not have been Spike Lee, Ava du Vernay or Barry Jenkins, who hail the work of a "
giant
"
on social networks
.
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 pic.twitter.com/IIpfU8wI7q
- Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) September 22, 2021
"
I am so saddened by the disappearance of my brother Melvin Van Peebles who propelled independent black cinema to the fore with his revolutionary film
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song", reacted on Instagram the filmmaker Spike Lee, director of
Do the Right Thing
. "
Damn, we've lost another giant
!" Condolences to the Peebles family
, ”he adds.
For Barry Jenkins, director of
Moonlight
(Oscar for best film 2017), “
the man LIVE totally
”
.
"
He was making the most of every second, of EVERY shot and I have to admit that although the last time I spent time with him in MANY years it was a night he danced. to the end of his strength,
”according to filmmaker Jenkins.
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 pic.twitter.com/IIpfU8wI7q
- Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) September 22, 2021
►
To read also:
"Black Power - The advent of black American pop culture" by Sophie Rosemont
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