Iconic filmmaker, actor and novelist Melvin Van Peebles dies at 89

Multi-trait talent (director, screenwriter, composer, actor, writer) Melvin Van Peebles has passed away at the age of 89. The news was announced on Wednesday by The Criterion Collection and Janus Films, who shared it on behalf of the set of Van Peebles. family. The “giant of American cinema” died on September 21 at his home with his family.

Van Peebles gave American independent cinema exactly what it needed, when it needed it most: an explosive reshuffle, with its unfiltered expression of black consciousness and energetic style. The lawless 1971 blaxploitation classic “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” undeniably changed the course of American film history, and it was only one part of a remarkably varied career that also included forays into filmmaking. European arthouse (“The Story of a Three Day Pass”), Hollywood comedy (“Watermelon Man”), Broadway productions (“Don’t Play Us Cheap”), novels and performance. He was a transformative artist whose biting observations of social mores, shameless radicalism, and vision established a model for black creative independence.

Born in Chicago in 1932, Van Peebles received a bachelor’s degree in literature from Ohio Wesleyan University and less than two weeks later joined the Air Force in which he served for nearly four years. His early work, including the book “The Big Heart”, eventually led him to cinema. His first short film, “Pickup Men for Herrick”, was made in 1957 and quickly followed by others. Although Hollywood initially rejected Van Peebles’ offer to direct feature films, his globetrotting nature ultimately led to him gaining more admirers and accolades around the world.

In the early 1960s, he moved to France, where he continued to write, make films and even release his first album. His first feature film, “The Story of a Three-Day Pass,” won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival and subsequently caught the attention of Hollywood brass. In 1970 he made his studio debut with the Columbia Pictures film “Watermelon Man”.

Its follow-up feature was the groundbreaking song “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss,” which was privately funded with its own money, and directed, scripted, edited, wrote the score and even ran the marketing campaign. The film helped spark the blaxploitation craze in American cinema, and in 2020 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically important ”.

The iconic creator continues to be celebrated today, even this week, as the New York Film Festival this weekend hosts a 50th anniversary screening of his flagship film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song”. A Criterion Collection box set, “Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films” will be released next week, and a cover of his play “Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death” is slated for a return to Broadway next year.

In a brief statement on his father’s passing, Mario Van Peebles, his son and longtime creative collaborator, said: “Dad knew black images matter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth? We want to be the success that we see, so we need to see ourselves free. True liberation did not mean emulating the mentality of the colonizer. It meant appreciating the power, beauty and interconnectivity of all. “

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