Word: vanning
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...original “badass” made an appearance at the Harvard Film Archive on the evening of April 25. I am speaking, of course, of legendary African-American author, composer, and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. Of his formidable body of work, Van Peebles is best known for his seminal 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song,” of which he was director, actor and writer...
However, this past Monday, Van Peebles was not on hand to discuss the work that earned him the title “the godfather of black cinema.” Rather, that evening’s screening was of his comparatively obscure first feature: “The Story of a Three-Day Pass.” Van Peebles remarked in a question and answer session after the film: “People who call me the godfather of modern black film are referring to ‘Sweetback,’ but that wasn’t the beginning...
...irony to which Van Peebles refers is the circumstance surrounding his expatriation to France. He initially endeavored to launch his cinematic career in the Hollywood system, but the only positions available for African-Americans were menial...
...went to Hollywood and asked to be a director, and they offered me a job as an elevator operator. I insisted that I wanted a job in production, and they eventually came back and offered me a job as a dancer,” recalls Van Peebles. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, and so I ended up in France...
...France, Van Peebles would learn of an obscure law that permitted French writers to be issued temporary director’s cards. To that end, he set out to establish himself as a French man of letters: he found work as a journalist for French language publications and authored five novels in his adopted tongue. “La Permission,” a novel of an African-American soldier stationed near Paris, became the basis of “Three-Day Pass...