Movies by Melvin Van Peebles

Taking Care of Terrific

Taking Care of Terrific

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. The two hook up for some hilarious adventures in the park with a mysterious bag lady and a street musician. With the help of Enid's boyfriend, Seth, they try to give the park dwellers a "special evening," but their good deed backfires and lands them in trouble.

Gang in Blue

Gang in Blue

A black police officer discovers a cell of white supremacist vigilantes within his department.

René Vautier, le rebelle

René Vautier, le rebelle

Wattstax

Wattstax

A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.

Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity

A maverick skydiver and a former KGB agent team up to stop the Russian mafia from stealing gold.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

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.

Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood

Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood

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.

Salty Dog Blues

Salty Dog Blues

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.