Black Panthers

[The Vegan Marxist]

Is there any documentaries or films that catalog the times of the Black Panther movement? In a positive light would be better than a negative light as well.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Aye, there's a fair few. In terms of documentaries; Here's part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhhXJqJJ-U) and just click through, it's pretty much just a collection of archive footage, but it's interesting nonetheless.

In terms of films; 'Panther' which is from circa '95 starring a young chris rock, and also the kid who played Tank in the Matrix as Huey Newton. Directed by Mario Van Peebles, it's semi-fictionalised, but not a bad film.

[Rakhmetov]

Melvin Van Peebles did a novel on the Black panthers called Panther and his son Mario Van Peebles did the film based on his father's work. I like them both a lot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRIw-eJ7h38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JhmsajdpGY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a1CKg9fCsc&feature=related

[brigadista]

try this we have a user group

http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=2664

[Manifesto]

Melvin Van Peebles did a novel on the Black panthers called Panther and his son Mario Van Peebles did the film based on his father's work. I like them both a lot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRIw-eJ7h38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JhmsajdpGY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a1CKg9fCsc&feature=related

I looked into that movie, a lot of it is not factual at all. Also, I would like to add this documentary by Spike Lee I believe but cannot vouch for its accuracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8RYM0SoYBE&feature=related

[brigadista]

i have a copy of this book and i can highly reccommend it - shows just how powerful art can be

http://www.moca.org/emorydouglas/

[Chimurenga.]

I've heard about a documentary with like five hours of footage about the Black Panthers. I don't remember a name or anything. Anyone know what I'm trying to describe?

[praxis1966]

The Spike Lee film is less a movie and more a taping of Roger Guenveur Smith's one man show, A Huey P. Newton Story. There is a lot of factually correct information in it, but if that's primarily what you're after you'd be barking up the wrong tree. It is valuable, but in the sense that it tries to deal with how Huey would assess the current state of things. It's more an interpretive performance by Smith than anything else, but it's moving nonetheless.

Anyhow, there is a pretty good documentary called The Murder of Fred Hampton (Alk, 1971) which can be found online here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6418849978684923626#). It's pretty damned interesting, considering that the intent of the filmmakers was simply to document the famed Illinois Panther in his own words and he just happened to get himself murdered by the FBI during the course of filming. The project then took on a life of its own, following the legal battles which ensued. If you decide to watch it, however, I'd still take a shot at getting my hands on the DVD (which I know can be had via Netflix but I'm not sure where else). There's some pretty interesting footage in the special features.


I've heard about a documentary with like five hours of footage about the Black Panthers. I don't remember a name or anything. Anyone know what I'm trying to describe?

Yeah, it's called What We Want, What We Believe, and it's actually about 12 hours long. It's also not really a documentary, per se. It's more of just a film archive as there's not much in the way of editing (obviously) or narrative structure involved. I haven't seen it, but I'm sure it's well worth viewing. I don't know where you'd go about finding it free online, but AK Press sells it for just shy of $40; which ain't bad considering it's four DVDs of footage. It can be found on their website here (http://www.akpress.org/2006/items/whatwewantwhatwebelieve).