In this episode we meet Melvin Van Peebles, a small but brilliant boy who grows up split between the rough South Side of Chicago and the nearby suburb of Phoenix, Illinois. A brilliant student, he graduates from high school at the age of fifteen, becomes the first person in his family to go to college. By the time he's 26, he's a veteran officer of the Air Force, a father, a husband in an interracial marriage, and a Gripman on a San Francisco Cable Car. After writing a moderately successful book titled 'The Big Heart', Melvin gets bit by the cinema bug and decides to become a filmmaker...little did he know that it would take him ten years and moving to another continent in order to get one made!

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

Join our weekly film club: https://www.instagram.com/arroyofilmclub

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

Sources:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit behindtheslatepod.substack.com