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Behind the Slate

21. Melvin Van Peebles Part 3 - Paint the Orange

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Fresh off his triumphant homecoming at the 1967 San Francisco International Film Festival, Melvin Van Peebles finds himself in a very different America than the one he left in 1959. There are protests against the Vietnam war, a growing counter culture culminating in the ‘Summer of Love’, and The Civil Rights Movement evolving into cries of Black Power. Soaking up this chaos like a sponge, Melvin combines global politics, street conversations, and his favorite 1880's French Singer to create the worlds first hip-hop album, ‘Brer Soul’. From there, he goes to Hollywood for his first and only studio film, ‘Watermelon Man’. Facing oppressive studio oversight, Melvin uses every trick at his disposal to subvert Hollywood's racist pass from the inside out.


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Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt


Sources:

'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' by Melvin Van Peebles (1971)

'2008 Interview with Red Bull Music Academy': https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/melvin-van-peebles-dont-write-a-check-your-ass-cant-cash

'Unstoppable: Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis in Conversation': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHuW5bxVamg

'Interview with Olumide Productions': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRn9nr5qXOg

Marlon Brando Eulogy for Bobby Hutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g05Sb9CcnE

Interview with Reelin In the Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48FJ03-tkU

Visionary Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeRJLgAbW-4&list=PLCwE4GdJdVRLS1R8f9-G8hihJQKmePpCW&t=116s

'How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)' (2005) Dir. Joe Angio

'SUBVERTING HOLLYWOOD FROM THE INSIDE OUT' by Racquel Gates: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2014.68.1.9

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