Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

Career Award St. Clair Bourne

“They bled my momma, they bled my poppa, but they won’t bleed me.” The refrain echoes throughout Melvin Van Peebles’s infamous and hugely influential film. Released in 1971 to only two theatres, the film went on to gross millions of dollars, as well as to receive an X rating by the MPAA for its real, not simulated, sex scenes and its brutal portrayal of racial conflict. Peebles produced, directed, wrote, and scored the film as well as starred as Sweetback, a sex performer of unquestioned prowess. On the run after murdering two white cops whom he saw savagely beating an innocent black man, Sweetback encounters a bizarre thread of lovers and associates who help him elude the (white) law. The film’s groundbreaking style—with its use of montage, freeze frames, jump cuts, and split screens—offered an unprecedented portrayal of African Americans and is considered by many to be a true classic of black cinema.  ST

Director

Melvin Van Peebles

Producers

Melvin Van Peebles, Jerry Gross

Editor

Melvin Van Peebles

Cinematographer

Bob Maxwell

Release Year

1971

Festival Year

2009

Country

United States

Run Time

97 minutes