Melvin Van Peebles Trailers
Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood TrailerOscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking TrailerArmed Trailer
Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which led to the creation of the blaxploitation genre. although critic Roger Ebert did not consider this example of Van Peebles' work to be an exploitation film. He followed this up with the musical, Don't Play Us Cheap, based on his own stage play, and continued to make films, write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades; his final films include the French-language film Le Conte du ventre plein (2000) and the absurdist film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (2008). His son, filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles, appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss!.
Most Popular Melvin Van Peebles Trailers
Total trailers found: 58
30 May 2006
Wide eyed Marty O Neil (Lee Homes) takes to the road on a quest to give his life meaning. When his motorcycle breaks down outside an adult bookstore in small town America Marty takes a job at the store to make money to fix his bike.
16 March 2022
In 1971, director Melvin Van Peebles turned the figure of the black hero in US cinema upside down with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: the story of the making of a seminal movie that initiated the Blaxploitation movement, a short-lived but highly influential sub-genre in the years that followed.
01 January 1992
Satchmo. There are few people in this country - or around the world - who will not recognize that name.
01 October 2007
BLACKOUT takes you inside the personal journey of what went down and what it was really like in Brooklyn, NY on August 14.
18 June 1993
After his father's death, a young boy finds solace in action movies featuring an indestructible cop. Given a magic ticket by a theater manager, he is transported into the film and teams up with the cop to stop a villain who escapes into the real world.
17 October 2009
Chronicles the rise and fall of 1970s New York City nightclub Plato's Retreat.
01 October 1986
The zany crew of a New York cable TV station accidentally bounce a signal off the moon, bringing them worldwide attention.
08 September 1996
A black police officer discovers a cell of white supremacist vigilantes within his department.
28 June 1992
Marcus is a successful advertising executive who woos and beds women almost at will. After a company merger he finds that his new boss, the ravishing Jacqueline, is treating him in exactly the same way.
17 July 1987
After another deadly shark attack, Ellen Brody decides she has had enough of New England's Amity Island and moves to the Caribbean to join her son, Michael, and his family.
26 February 2009
THE BLACK LIST: VOL. 2 profiles some of today's most fascinating African-Americans. From the childhood inspirations that shaped their ambitions, to the evolving American landscape they helped define, to the importance of preserving a unique cultural identity for future generations, these prominent individuals offer a unique look into the zeitgeist of black America, redefining the traditional pejorative notion of a blacklist.
03 May 1995
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
27 January 1987
A high school is rocked by a contentious debate over whether or not "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" should be removed from its library for language concerns.
28 August 1993
Arrabal's sixth film based on his novel from 1969 with the same name as the movie.
01 January 1996
Four erotic short films, all with similar unexpected endings: 'The Dutch Master': a woman who enters a living painting; 'The Insatiable Mrs.
04 October 1999
A masseur gets mixed up in the family plots at the mansion of a recently deceased Beverly Hills millionaire.
17 October 2006
Three converging story lines involving bootleggers, a serial killer and drug dealers are followed. A former drug dealer tries to go straight, but comes across a stash of stolen drugs.
23 August 1991
In order to escape from the mob, an African-American man must disguise himself as a white man.
14 May 1993
A group of mostly black infantrymen return from the Spanish-American War with a cache of gold. They travel to the West where their leader searches for the men who lynched his father.
28 May 2004
Director Mario Van Peebles chronicles the complicated production of his father Melvin's classic 1971 film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
23 September 1994
A maverick skydiver and a former KGB agent team up to stop the Russian mafia from stealing gold.
31 January 2006
Featuring Robert Crumb, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiny Tim, Russ Meyer and more this volume of the “Midnight Blue” collection focuses on celebrities.
01 July 1977
The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper-tier NASCAR race.
24 September 2009
A look at the development of film making and its contribution to the social and political times form the perspective of Black film makers.
22 April 1995
From the immensely popular FIST OF THE NORTH STAR comic book series, comes a new hero. The fate of mankind rests with superhuman warrior Kenshiro who roams the wastelands of the future waging a battle against overwhelming evil.
10 July 1987
O.C. and Stiggs aren't your average unhappy teenagers. They not only despise their suburban surroundings, but they also plot against it.
05 December 2003
When a psychotic Santa tries to destroy Chanukah by hypnotizing Jewish children with bootlegged copies of the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life," it's up to the Hebrew Hammer to save the day.
03 November 1989
The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
22 August 2008
A semi-autobiographical story about an adventurer whose journeys take him from Harlem to the high sen
27 April 1997
In April 1992, following the notorious Rodney King verdict, the streets of Los Angeles became a battlefield, the backdrop to four personal intertwined stories.
04 February 1973
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots.
01 January 2012
The film looks at men and women of color in the U.S. Merchant Marine from 1938-1975. Through chronicling the lives of these men and women who, with a median age of 82, are beset with a host of life-threatening illnesses, the movie tells how they navigated issues of racism, disparities in the workplace, gender and familial relations.
27 May 1970
A racist insurance agent lives in a typical suburban neighborhood, but his bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight.
26 August 2011
In Tennessee, Bailey, a debt-straddled blues guitarist, is escorted across the state by a man named Augy so that he can collect his recently deceased grandfather's estate.
10 July 2021
A look at the extraordinary achievements and contemporary legacy of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneer of the African-American film industry.
14 September 1976
Upon learning that their grandmother is not long for this world, Nate and Priscilla Simmons pack up their kids and leave Detroit to head down South.
09 May 2013
Hoping to propose to his upper-crust girlfriend, Wade Walker crashes her family's annual reunion and lands in a face-off with her dad.
27 July 1969
Commercial director Serge Faberge is having an affair with Evelyne, the 18 year old fiancee of friend Hugh.
31 March 1971
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
16 January 1988
14-year-old Enid Crowley hates her name and everything about her boring life. All this changes when she becomes a full-time babysitter to a sheltered boy.
01 January 1995
A young boy receives a mystical motorcycle that transforms into a woman when he rides it at night.
31 December 1961
A boy sees a 500-franc note under a sewer grate and tries to retrieve it.
14 January 2003
This twenty-two minute interview with Melvin Van Peebles has the cult filmmaker starting things off by lighting a cigar, which is something he has done in several interviews.
01 January 1957
The second short film Melvin Van Peebles made in San Francisco before decamping for Europe is a striking portrait of a group of day labourers competing to secure a job.
01 April 2011
Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P.
16 October 1998
A history of the racially stereotyped portrayal of African Americans in cinema, hosted by film pioneer Melvin Van Peebles.
01 December 1996
Drama about a young man who defies his parents by dropping out of college to pursue his dream of owning a fishing boat, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
14 September 2018
A former U.S. marshal discovers that all of the survivors of his old unit are experiencing the same symptoms simultaneously and there may be a larger conspiracy at hand.
13 April 1973
As an African American family and friends gather in an apartment for a house party, two mischief-making devil-bats take human form in order to break up the party.
14 August 2002
With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record.
13 February 2005
An interview/overview on the influential careers of Gordon Parks, Ossie Davis, and Melvin Van Peebles.
15 September 1989
A rapper finds himself possessed by the soul of a dead fashion designer; frequently switching personalities.
01 January 2011
A documentary looking at the making and legacy of The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973).
07 April 2005
Melvin Van Peebles was one of the first black directors to challenge the white establishment in his films, which include "Watermelon Man" and "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
08 July 1968
Turner, a black American soldier, is given three days leave in Paris. Not knowing what to do with himself, he goes to a nightclub where he meets a French girl named Miriam.
28 June 2000
Maverick director Melvin Van Peebles translates his own satirical novel to the screen with this multi-national portrait of race, class, and hypocrisy.
01 January 1957
A black man steals to afford to marry the woman he loves. After being released from prison, he returns in time to see his daughter's wedding.
