How
to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
(2015/Music Box DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: A Film: C+
Melvin
Van Peebles a pioneer in filming challenged the 1960s with 'Black
films', daring to put black actors as main characters and heroes.
While at first he was ignored and shunned by American companies. he
then proceeded to film in France where there was less discrimination
and racism in filming. Shocking and modern, he paved the way for
future black film makers, actors and musicians building up to the
runaway 1971 smash hit feature film, Sweet
Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
It launched the Blaxploitation films of the decade and cemented
Pebbles bold, alternate discourse as a controversial artist.
Who
was Melvin Van Peebles? Joe Angio's How
to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
(2015) is a new documentary that is a biography of the man and covers
much of his work, showing us that he was a rebel, a pioneer for Black
entertainment, he dared to break social rules and make movies that
used Black actors and showed the racial discrimination and bigotry of
America in the '60s. This created enormous profit and fame for
Peebles and because American companies were afraid of producing
'Black films' or claiming any association only grudging accepted
Peebles because they wanted a piece of his pie/profit. Which Melvin
was completely aware, the only way for Black rights to move forward
or proceed was if Whites profited from it, otherwise you were
blacklisted and your film, music would be rejected by the white
companies.
This documentary showed the early origins of the
current wave of African Americans in movies in front of and behind
the camera. Ever wonder where movies like Shaft
and Blacula
came from? It was an age where while civil rights in America passed,
but nobody said there a problem in ignoring Black ghettos and those
who came from there. This is well done, but I wish it were longer.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image mixes all kinds of older,
archival footage with new interviews, but it can be rough often,
which extends to the sound offered here in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
sound that drifts between stereo and mono. Extras include
conversations with Melvin, commentaries, concert, and trailer.
-
Ricky Chiang
