I forgot to write a post about this film Friday when I first saw it, however, here it is now. If you are living in an area where they are playing “Black Power Miixtape 1967-1975″ make sure that you go see it ASAP.
In all honesty, this film wasn’t necessarily what I thought it would be like. I thought it was about how music was intertwined with the Civil Rights Movement, however it was way better than that. The film explores the era of 1967-1975 through the eyes of Swedish Television Journalists. These journalists travel throughout the United States to essentially show how the world really is, and how certain things were affecting the people. The footage was then compiled by Goran Hugo Olsson in a fascinating chronological series, and commentary from Sonia Sanchez, ?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, John Forte who in my opinion, gave the best commentary, and etc.
The film starts with the concept of “Black Power” and we see speeches by Stokely Carmichael, even rare footage of him interviewing his mother where she speaks about the discrimination that her family has faced in particularly her husband and how he will get laid off first. We also see the Black Panthers being talked about with the children in the free meal programs singing chants about guns (it was rather funny to me) we see Huey Newton getting released from prison, and even Eldridge Cleaver talking and his wife talking when he moved to Algerian. The film also shows commentary of Harry Belefonte with his from Martin Luther King Jr. We are introduced to a then young Louis Farrakhan who is just getting high in the ranks. He gives this speech where he talks about why we should not eat pork, and etc. The film then goes to the trial of one of my idols Angela Davis and her in jail, and the speeches she gave after being released from the prison. What I found interesting about this part is there was a white lawyer who looked a little like Mischina Wolfe’s father (I’m Down book read it if you haven’t. If you haven’t read it, you wouldn’t understand that reference) with a fro and chains, and he explains how he is on the side of Davis. They want her to be guilty.
After the “Black Power Movement” was documented, we are then introduced to one of the saddest moments in black history– in my opinion, the crack/heroin era that we are still facing today. We see through the filming how drugs being implanted in black communities had almost like a genocide effect. People being strung out, and having children who are already drug addicts at birth. For me, this part made me cry being that I have family who through crack have never been the same, even an aunt who died from drugs. We see a young girl talking about how she became a prostitute to fuel her drug habit even selling her body for $6. She seems remorseful, and ashamed because not even her little sister wants to be around her. We also see these little babies in incubators who are deformed and won’t stop crying because the drugs are in their body from their drug addicts mothers. The nurses had to put towels over their faces because the light was irritating them, just sad. Another part that was rather disturbing in this section was that we actually see people shooting up, and people being taken away in hospital stretchers– disturbing, but oddly fascinating footage.
This film was great, and I definitely recommend you see it. The footage was just fascinating to say the least, and some of my idols or parents idols were documented. I also find this era to be so fascinating because at this time people were essentially fighting for something, and we aren’t any longer. Granted, there are people who fight for what they believe, but, not for the most part. It’s sad to see how certain aspects of this film really haven’t changed too much and are still issues that we are facing within our communities. Look at the trailer below.
