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V

Van Peebles, Melvin (1932– )
Melvin Van Peebles exemplified independent film-
making in the late 1960s, and by the early 1970s
he became a pioneer in making the kind of black-
oriented films that revitalized Hollywood studios.
Outspoken and determined, he has assumed a
legendary status among filmmakers and has con-
nected with audiences across age and racial lines.
But from the critics, Van Peebles has often been a
target of harsh commentary for his film styliza-
tions and content, particularly for his second film,
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971).
Born in Chicago in 1932, Van Peebles received a
B.A. in English literature at Ohio Weslyan Univer-
sity. By the time he went into the air force in the late
1950s, he was in an interracial marriage with three
children, including his son Mario. After three years
in the service, he settled his family in San Fran-
cisco, where he began to make short films, namely
Sunlight (1958) and Three Pickup Men for Herrick
(1958), hoping to earn a ticket into Hollywood.
However, the only jobs offered him at one studio
were attending the parking lot and running the el-
evator. Leaving the country, he studied science at
the University of Amsterdam and took acting les-
sons, but faced with marriage problems, he finally
settled in Paris, drawn once more to filmmaking.
Realizing that he could get financial support from
the government as a filmmaker, Van Peebles taught
himself French and wrote several novels to make a

name for himself. One of the works was titled Story

of a Three Day Pass, which he made into a film in

1968. The focus of the fictional work was the inter-
      racial love affair between a black American service-
      man and a white Parisian woman, emphasizing the
      racial consciousness of the black soldier and the
      racism of his fellow white soldiers.
      The film garnered critical attention at film festi-
      vals, providing Van Peebles access to Hollywood for
      his first American film, Watermelon Man (1970), a
      satire about a conservative white man who awak-
      ens one morning to find that he is suddenly black.
      However, it was the controversial images in Van
      Peebles’ next film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss
      Song, that prompted conflicting critiques.
      Highlighting graphic sexual scenes and violence,
      Sweet Sweetback follows the odyssey of the title
      character, a black man who works as a performer
      at an underground sex theater and who becomes a
      fugitive after beating white police officers who were
      attacking a black radical. Van Peebles claimed the
      film was revolutionary, depicting the triumph of a
      black man who confronts and escapes the oppres-
      sive white system. Others, however, saw the movie
      as a celebration of racial stereotypes, specifically
      the alleged sexual obsession and prowess of blacks.
      In addition to what some perceived as negative
      content, other critics also dismissed the film for
      its awkward and elliptical cinematic techniques.
      Regardless, on a $500,000 budget that he raised,