Hollywood filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles has died at 89.
His family, The Criterion Collection and Janus Films, released a joint statement announcing his passing.
“In an unparalleled career distinguished by relentless innovation, boundless curiosity and spiritual empathy, Melvin Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape through his films, novels, plays and music,” the statement read.
“His work continues to be essential and is being celebrated at the New York Film Festival this weekend with a 50th anniversary screening of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; a Criterion Collection box set, Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, next week; and a revival of his play Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, slated for a return to Broadway next year.”
As a tribute to the late cinema great, “Sweet Sweetback” will be screened at the New York Film Festival this week for a 50th-anniversary tribute.
Vna Peebles’ death is another massive blow to the entertainment industry, which has lost several greats in recent years.
Affectionally bestowed the moniker the “godfather of modern Black cinema,” Van Peebles was born in Chicago on August 21, 1932. He spent his formative years being raised by his father before graduating from Township High School in Phoenix, Illinois. Van Peebles would spend a year at West Virginia State College before transferring to Ohio Wesleyan University, where he earned his B.A. degree in English literature in 1953.
Van Peebles did not pursue a film career as soon as he earned his degree.
Van Peebles served three and a half years as a flight navigator in the United States Air Force and published several novels in French, including “The Big Heart” and “La Permission” in 1967. People then adapted the latter into a film titled “The Story of the Three-Day Pass.’
The directorial debut was selected as the French entry in the 1968 San Francisco Film Festival and was hailed as a triumph.
He began his film career creating short films. He made his directorial career with the 1967’s “The Story of a Three-Day Pass, about a romance between a Black GI and a white shop clerk in Paris. Van Peebles then made his Hollywood debut in 1970 with “Watermelon Man.”
“Watermelon Man,” focused on a white insurance salesman named Jeff Gerber, who wakes up one morning to find that he has become Black. Van Peebles had the innate gift of turning a lens on topics of race in a manner that inspired and entertained the Black community and forced white Hollywood to follow suit.
Van Peebles, the father of actor and filmmaker Mario Van Peebles, frequently used his own money and lesser-known actors and technicians to create his films.
In 1971, Van Peebles released “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” considered a catalyst of Hollywood’s blaxploitation era. During an interview with Electric Sheep, he shared that “Sweetback” was part of a trilogy.
“It’s a trilogy, I never had a chance to make the other parts. I made a couple other American films which no one would distribute because it’s too dangerous, no one owns me. I own Sweetback 100%,” said Van Peebles.
“I’ve got no partner, I own the music, the book, everything. I had to do it all alone so it’s all mine. And no one would help me. Bill [Cosby] loaned me money at one stage of the game but even he would not take a piece of the movie. He only wanted his money back. This is what I’ve taught Mario and I’m very pleased. He not only knows how to play the game but how to own the team. That’s very important.”
Some of Van Peebles’s acting credits include “O.C. and Stiggs” (1985), “Boomerang” (1992), Stephen King’s “The Shining” (1997), The Hebrew Hammer” (2003), and “Peeples” (2013), to name just a few.
The world has lost a legend but his legacy lives on through his family, his films and his vast influence on modern cinema.
