- [first lines]
- Sandra Nkake: March the 31st, 1971, the line outside the Grand Circus Theater in Detroit has never been as long for an independent film. Moreover, one that is X rated. In a few minutes time, these young black women and men would experience a liberating explosion. That day, the images of the film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" reveal the black man rebelling against his condition in a racist America. The unprecedented political statement threw Hollywood into panic and completely changed the face of American cinema. Its Director, Melvin Van Peebles, both actor and writer, unveiled a black hero. A black hero who does not die. A black hero who breaks free - at last.
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage - seeking financing to make "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song"] I went to see some buddies and said to them, "Listen, I want some money." And these buddies were crooks. "Melvin, are you sure?" If I couldn't pay them back, they would kill me. It wasn't personal, but in that milieu, you can't let someone not pay you back. And I knew that. "Melvin, you know the price if you don't pay up." I said, "Sure."
- Sandra Rush: [reading from Melvin Van Peebles' "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: A Guerilla Filmmaking Manifesto"] First day, May 11th, freak show. We lost our cherry in style. Delicate moment when the girl undressed and the lesbian wearing a dildo undressed and get down to the nitty gritty. The crowd of extras playing onlookers were on the verge of freaking right out of character. I had chosen that scene for my very first day of shooting, because it was sexy and security-wise it would throw snoopers off the trail.
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage] It's a film about a brother who changes from an exploiter of the black community into a brother who wants to save the community of - wants to stand up on his own hind legs which, of course, is against The Man's idea he's cut out for... And, so, he's got to run. It's the story of his fight for survival.
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage] The theme of the film is that: you bled my Mom-ma, you bleed my Pop-pa, but you won't bleed me.
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage - on hiring an affordable non-union crew] The curious thing is, the Americans decided that porn movies were outside the system. This meant there were people who were able to learn the trade by working on porn movies. So I went to see every porn movie. I felt seasick from watching all that porn! But every time I saw a porn flick that was well shot and well lit, the same name appeared. So I found the guy, and he became my head cameraman.
- Mike Sargent: The thing about a title like, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," is that, you know, if you're black and in America, you know, Sweet Sweetback, you know that's a nickname for somebody. And Bad Ass, everybody knows what a Bad Ass is. A Bad Ass is somebody who knows they're strong, know's they're powerful. They don't give a shit what you think.
- Mike Sargent: It does all these things that they say you're not supposed to do. He has narrative jumps and the way he edited it and there's a lot of kinetic energy. So, I was really impressed with not only the film but just how far ahead of it's time it was. To be just that bold and experimental.
- Sandra Rush: The music of this film is extremely important and Melvin had no musical training or background whatsoever. And he made up the music by using numbers. It was extraordinary. And he said the number 8 would be what is called middle C. Only Melvin could figure that out. And he has these numbers here and I remember him asking me, "Just do this, Sandra." "What?" "Just go do-dah, do-dah, do-dah." And as I would do "do-dah, do-dah, do-dah," he would create something else. Another melody from that "do-dah, do-dah, do-dah." And I thought he was nuts at the time. But, as always, he knew *exactly* what he was doing. And he had in his mind exactly what he wanted it to sound like.
- Donna Dubrow: I was a biker chick and we filmed that on the stage. We didn't see a script. We didn't see anything before and then all of the sudden there's this black man having sex with a white woman with everybody around and it' like, wow, this is really happening. This is shocking. We knew it was sort of somewhat outrageous.
- Mario Van Peebles: One of the things I remember is that my father had this secretary, she had this big afro and I thought she was really, really hot. I was like, "Wow, look at that." My father wanted Priscilla to act in the movie because he had at a certain point couldn't use SAG actors. And, so, but Priscilla had a boyfriend that didn't want her to act in the movie. He was a little protective of her. And rightly so with Melvin. He said, "You can't act in this movie, but, I really like the idea of this movie and I really dig Melvin's revolutionary spirit. And I have a new band and I want to do the music for Sweetback." And so my father said, "Okay, what's your new band called?" He said, "It's called: Earth, Wind & Fire."
- Mario Van Peebles: My family was unusual, you know. We had grown up going to nude beaches. We weren't your typical family. My mother's white. My father's black. So, we were very - we were more open minded than your average kid. And I'd also grown up in, you know, we saw, we'd been in Amsterdam, we'd seen Rembrandt. So, I had a whole different mindset than most kids did. But, I remember the scene with the woman and me - I was a boy. I would have loved to have tried that scene again. I think I would do better with that scene now than then. But, I remember it. It was wild. It wasn't the hardest scene I'd ever done as an acting job.
- Bill Duke: Running in the movie, I think it represented the history of slavery - where the people who escaped and ran. And it also showed the strength of his character, the endurance, and all that. That's significant also. So I think its a multi - running is a multi-layered - it is a symbol of what we could possibly be. All of us.
- Mario Van Peebles: I remember watching him figure out when someone had called the fire department. So, he had the cameraman, he was an older white gentleman from the porn industry, talk to the fire department, right. "Oh, it was a mistake. We didn't the permit on Friday. You do Sunday, 'cause you only..." But, Melvin knew all this, right. Well, Melvin kept the cameras rolling and he walked among the fire trucks and got great production value.
- Mike Sargent: One of the things I've learned from Melvin is that, you know, if you have something that can be considered a weakness, you can lean into it - and make that your strength.
- Bill Duke: I remember the first time I saw "Sweetback." In think it was with a couple of friends of mine - and we were both acting students at the time. And we just looked at it like, "This is a black man that did this? This is? Really? I mean, he directed, he wrote it, edited it, starred in it, did the music. A black man did this?"
- Reginald Hudlin: "Sweet Sweetback" is still a shocker. Because it's an avant-garde film. It's really important to understand this is not a conventional Hollywood movie, in terms of the story telling technique. Unlike all the movies that it inspired, like "Shaft" and "Superfly" and "Foxy Brown," "Sweet Sweetback is avant-garde cinema.
- Mario Van Peebles: Melvin Van Peebles puts Black Power on the screen. And for the first time, the world is, "Ahh". They've never seen black folks like that. They've seen us straighten our hair and try to fit in and try to look like them. They've never seen this Black Power on the screen before.
- Philip Hart: We were radical students and we had been used to watching Sidney Poitier.
- [mockingly]
- Philip Hart: "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" And then we went from "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" to "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" with all that sex and Sydney Poitier barely kissed anybody. So, we were happy to see that oh, we finally see a black man do what we all like to do.
- Mario Van Peebles: When "Sweetback" became the top grossing independent hit of all time, up to that time, and then later they had a script written by a white guy, called "Shaft" and they decided to put it in blackface. It was not written for a black person.
- Bill Duke: He created what I think, I call: edutainment. Because the film was definitely entertaining. It had everything from drama to comedy to whatever. But, it was - it talked about subject matter that was relevant. It had the action, everything, but, it also is relevant to the time. And, unfortunately, it is still relevant today. I hate to say that, but...
- Sandra Nkake: The studios were producing more and more action films for a black public, featuring a super viral heroes and heroines with exposed breasts.
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage] Hollywood took my formula, diminished the concept of negratude to a flamboyant cartoon, and reversed the political message - turning it into a counter-revolutionary one. And voilà...
- Melvin Van Peebles: [archival footage] I went down to Hollywood to make films - and they threw me down the steps. Nobody was straight up. They would try and - and kill your soul. And they would say, "Well, why its obvious that you don't have the film Director's point of view..." They didn't say, "Nigger, get out of here." They'd say, "No, you don't have this and..."