Behind the Slate

Have you watched 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' and need to talk about it? We feel you.

That's why Aaron is once again joined by Dr. Amy Abugo Ongiri, film historian, Director of Ethnic Studies at the University of Portland, and author of the book: “Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic". Join us as we talk about Sweetback, how it related to the Black Power and Black Art Movements, and it's legacy on both Blaxploitation and black representation to this day!

Amy Ongiri on Instagram: @daughterofthedust

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

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Melvin flips Hollywood the middle-finger setting out to make his own independent movie, at a time when it was considered borderline impossible. What followed was one of the wildest stories in film history as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song survives on-set madness and impossible odds to become one of the most successful films of the decade.

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

Sources:

'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' by Melvin Van Peebles (1971)

'2008 Interview with Red Bull Music Academy': https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/melvin-van-peebles-dont-write-a-check-your-ass-cant-cash

'Unstoppable: Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis in Conversation': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHuW5bxVamg

'Interview with Olumide Productions': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRn9nr5qXOg

Marlon Brando Eulogy for Bobby Hutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g05Sb9CcnE

Interview with Reelin In the Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48FJ03-tkU

Visionary Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeRJLgAbW-4&list=PLCwE4GdJdVRLS1R8f9-G8hihJQKmePpCW&t=116s

'How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)' (2005) Dir. Joe Angio

'SUBVERTING HOLLYWOOD FROM THE INSIDE OUT' by Racquel Gates: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2014.68.1.9

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Fresh off his triumphant homecoming at the 1967 San Francisco International Film Festival, Melvin Van Peebles finds himself in a very different America than the one he left in 1959. There are protests against the Vietnam war, a growing counter culture culminating in the ‘Summer of Love’, and The Civil Rights Movement evolving into cries of Black Power. Soaking up this chaos like a sponge, Melvin combines global politics, street conversations, and his favorite 1880's French Singer to create the worlds first hip-hop album, ‘Brer Soul’. From there, he goes to Hollywood for his first and only studio film, ‘Watermelon Man’. Facing oppressive studio oversight, Melvin uses every trick at his disposal to subvert Hollywood's racist pass from the inside out.

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

Sources:

'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' by Melvin Van Peebles (1971)

'2008 Interview with Red Bull Music Academy': https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/melvin-van-peebles-dont-write-a-check-your-ass-cant-cash

'Unstoppable: Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis in Conversation': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHuW5bxVamg

'Interview with Olumide Productions': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRn9nr5qXOg

Marlon Brando Eulogy for Bobby Hutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g05Sb9CcnE

Interview with Reelin In the Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48FJ03-tkU

Visionary Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeRJLgAbW-4&list=PLCwE4GdJdVRLS1R8f9-G8hihJQKmePpCW&t=116s

'How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)' (2005) Dir. Joe Angio

'SUBVERTING HOLLYWOOD FROM THE INSIDE OUT' by Racquel Gates: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2014.68.1.9

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

Today, Aaron is joined by Dr. Amy Abugo Ongiri, film historian, Director of Ethnic Studies at the University of Portland, and author of the book: “Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic".

Dr. Ongiri talks to us about this shift from Civil Rights to Black Power, how The Black Panther Party effectively used the media to spread their message, and how the Black Arts Movement sought to define a distinctly black aesthetic. All of these forces would greatly affect Melvin Van Peebles during his most creative years from 1968-1971.

Amy Ongiri on Instagram: @daughterofthedust

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

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

I am hard at work prepping the next installment of the Melvin Van Peebles history series. In the meantime, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the release schedule moving forward as well as reflecting on how this show has evolved beyond just a history podcast and how that will continue to shape the show going forward!

If you have any thoughts or questions, please email me at [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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Today, Aaron is joined by Christopher Sieving a professor of film at the University of Georgia, Athens. His latest book is titled ‘Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess’ which I cannot wait to read, so please, if you’re a ‘Ganja and Hess’ fan, or just want to learn more about this amazing film, go buy that out. But his first book, and the subject for today’s podcast, is titled ‘Soul Searching: Black Themed Cinema From the march on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation’.

Chris takes us through the turbulent years of 1961-1968 when the Civil Rights Movement filled TV screens but is strangely absent from American Cinema. We talk about the underwhelming adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun', Ossie Davis' failed independent production 'Gone are the Days', Shirley Clarke's 'The Cool World', and the cancelled prestige project 'The Confessions of Nat Turner'.

Christopher Sieving Twitter: @soulburger26

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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Today, Aaron is joined by visionary entrepreneur, cinephile and theatre owner, Christopher Escobar. Chris serves as the Executive Director of the Atlanta Film Society, the non-profit group that runs the Atlanta Film Festival. He is also the owner of the famed Plaza Theatre, Atlanta's oldest continuously operating theatre, and the new owner of The Tara theatre, another of Atlanta's great historic movie palaces.

Chris shares how he came to be the proud owner of not one but two historic theatres, and explains why he's buying in when so many in the industry are proclaiming 'the death of cinema'. He shares the true value of the in-person cinematic experience and why it may attract ghosts. Finally, he gives a preview of the upcoming 47th Atlanta Film Festival (April 20-30th ,2023) and how Atlanta manages to balance grass-roots community with Academy Award Qualifying glamour. The Tara Theatre is currently raising funds to help in their reopening effort please donate or buy ticket vouchers at www.taraatlanta.com

Tara Theatre IG: @thetaraatlanta

Plaza Theatre IG: @plazaatlanta

Atlanta Film Festival IG: @atlantafilmfestival

Atlanta Film Society IG: @atlfilmsociety

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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

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.

Aaron is joined by filmmaker, photographer, experimental ethnographer, world traveler and the winner of the ATLFILMPARTY Cycle 4, Artemus Jenkins. Artemus talks about some of his earliest film memories, gives insight into his creative journey into filmmaking and explains why he believes documentary is the most exciting genre for the future of film.

ATLFILMPARTY is an Atlanta based community event serving local filmmakers. My good friend B. Sonenreich established the event in 2021, because so many local filmmakers put their blood, sweat, and tears into Georgia's $4.4 billion film industry and can barely pay for their own incredible projects, let alone get them seen at sold out events. If you're ATL-raised or based, you are eligible to submit to ATLFILMPARTY's open call for shorts. The next call is for short documentaries. The winner receives a $500 grant and mentorship from ATLFILMPARTY sponsor: Southern Documentary Fund. The deadline for short docs is May 1st 2023 at 11:59 PM you can submit at FilmFreeway.com/atlfilmparty

ATLFILMPARTY IG: @atlfilmparty

Artemus Jenkins: www.artemusjenkins.com

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

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

It is our first episode on the life and work of the revolutionary artist, Melvin Van Peebles... only Mr. Van Peebles will not be appearing. In order to understand the themes, imagery and messages within his films, we are going to tell a story of African American representation in American drama. We'll meet a Caribbean immigrant who founds the first black owned theatre in the U.S., a gangly white actor who made one of the most dangerous pieces of art in human history, a lower Manhattan wunderkind who would come to be known as 'King of all Dancers' and of course, the South Dakota Homesteader turned father of African American independent cinema, Oscar Micheaux!

Email us: [email protected]

Instagram: @behindtheslatepod

TikTok: @behindtheslatepod

YouTube: @behindtheslatepodcast

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

Producer: Greg Kleinschmidt

Sources:

‘White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour’ by Marvin McAllister

'The African Grove Theatre and Company’ by Jonathan Dewberry

‘Stephen C. Foster and Negro Minstrelsy' by Robert P. Nevin

‘Select Committee on the Slave Trade. Evidence by Thomas Trotter'

‘Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America' by Sterling Stuckey

‘Black Magic a Pictorial History of Black Entertainers in America' by Langston Hughes

‘American Notes' by Charles Dickens

‘Red Summer' by Cameron McWhirter

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