Saturday, October 07, 2006

Portrait of a Rennaisance Man

by Joe Angio

My knowledge of Melvin Van Peebles consisted mainly of thinking of him as the father of the “blaxploitation” film genre and the maker of Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song (which I haven’t seen yet). With a provocative title such as How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), I wanted to check out the film at the Atlantic Film Festival and to find out more about Van Peebles. I was very glad that I did since Joe Angio, the director of the documentary, introduced it and was around for the question & answer session afterwards.
The film paints a very entertaining portrait of a no-nonsense artist and person who just goes and does whatever he decides to do. I was constantly amazed as I learned more and more about a man who seems to be able to do just about anything that he sets his mind to. A lot of fun, fascinating and an important contribution to the history of film and art in the 20th century.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you want to buy the movie, you should get it at imoovie.com :] It's really cheap and they don't even charge for shipping :D I always get my movies from there.