The Black Power Mixtape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2jYjUiulMQ "Soul Makossa," a song by Manu Dibango played in a New York City radio station in the film.

I'm glad I went to Union South to see this Swedish documentary of unseen footage of various moments in the history of the Black Power Movement. Initially afraid I would have to see the documentary alone, two friends of mine decided to accompany me, making it a more entertaining experience because I could point out facts and explain things in the film that may have eluded the attention of my two friends.

The film chronicles the Swedish video crew from 1967-1975, the zenith of the Black Power Movement as Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, and other nationalist, revolutionary organizations faced stern resistance from Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and retaliation from white-controlled intellectuals opposed to the Black Arts Movement. 1967 was also the year of two explosive riots, in Newark and Detroit, that were not mentioned at all in the film, which shocked me since footage of riots in 1968 after the assassination of MLK was shown. But 1967-1968 essentially focus on MLK's anti-war stance, Stokely Carmichael of SNCC's oratory skills, and a moving clip of Carmichael interviewing his Trinidadian mother about their life once they moved to New York in his early years. During his intimate interview with his own mother, the viewer learns of Carmichael's own experiences facing poverty and racism since their family of 8 shared a 3 bedroom apartment in a run-down neighborhood. Carmichael's fiery rhetoric and excerpts from some of his videotaped inflammatory speeches are also incorporated in the film, my favorite being Carmichael's assertion that America has no moral conscience.

The next most meaningful part of the film was dedicated to Angela Davis's 18 month imprisonment  in the early 1970s. Through a powerful interview with Davis while still imprisoned, she reacts passionately to expected white question of condoning violence. She reveals her own ties to the four young women murdered in 1963 at the 16th Street Baptist Church, since her mother was a friend of one of the four women. Growing up in Birmingham, Davis recalls experiencing her family's home shake after bombings by white terrorists, as well as the obvious fact that her father (like many black folks) surrounded themselves with guns for armed self-defense. She also reminds the white interviewer of the incessant police surveillance and harassment of blacks as part of the overwhelming violence used against blacks, which is relevant to her own experiences.
Moreover, the case against her in the murder of a judge was a political trial, since the two guns used in the crime were supposedly registered in her name, though she was nowhere near the crime scene.

After Angela Davis and listening to John Forte and others discuss how influential Davis was (Forte focuses on Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete and its relevance to the lives of black prisoners, as well as short coverage of the Attica prison riots) the film gradually moves to the mid-1970s, focusing on the destructive impact of drugs in Harlem. The most disturbing scene in the film is footage of a dope baby, underdeveloped and crying in hospital. Some interesting interviews follow with blacks in Harlem organizing drug treatment centers, and a clip of a young Louis Farrakhan discussing the Nation of Islam's theology and resistance to drugs and moral decay preying upon Americans. A hilarious scene ensues with young children in line boarding a bus to a Nation of Islam school, each boy wearing a bow tie. Another problematic interview with a former young prostitute addicted to heroin follows, with her planning on changing her life.

Overall, the actual footage used in the film does not adequately cover the period, which is understandable since a Swedish team could not have possibly videotaped the entire movement. However, one must resist the romanticization of certains aspects of the Black Power Movement one encounters in this documentary. First, the documentary overlooks the incredibly sexist and violent internal dynamics of the group and its own leader, Huey P. Newton, eventually succumbing to narcotics (understandable that a Swedish team could not have uncovered this). The documentary also ignores some of the nuances and larger facts, such as the role of women in other areas of the Black Power Movement, lacks a deeper analysis of the infiltration of drugs in Harlem and other black communities that preceded the 1970s, and a critical eye on Carmichael. Furthermore, the film's structure as a mixtape, or amalgamation of footage of varying scenes in the turbulent history of this period made it weaker as a cohesive whole than the normal documentary one might watch on PBS. Despite the aforementioned flaws, the voice over narrators were generally erudite (Angela Davis and Robin Kelley), relevant to younger generations (Talib Kweli, Questlove), or insightful (Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte). John Forte's presence shocked me, since his music career never really went anywhere.

My favorite part of the film:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZELXvAT_B04