Part icon, part iconoclast, Melvin Van Peebles is a filmmaker with an autobiography that’s as fascinating as any of his motion pictures. This playful documentary (full of rare archival footage and unforgettable backstage stories) does a great job explaining how the father of Blaxploitation got from military service in Korea, to driving cable cars in San Francisco, to life as a trader at the New York Stock Exchange—with some of these same circuitous journeys helping to explain just where Sweet Sweetback actually got his song. This is a carefully crafted tale of how a young black kid from Chicago ended up making one of the most controversial independent films in American history—and about what happened to him after his quick rise to cinematic stardom.  JJ