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In 1971 Melvin Van Peebles was a hot director in Hollywood, albeit a token to be sure. He'd just finished a comedy, Watermelon Man, starring Godfrey Cambridge playing a racist white man who suddenly wakes up one morning to discover he is black. Van Peebles could easily have worked lucrative deals for making more racially stereotyped films.

Instead he chose to make a film that would allow people of color to be treated as real people and allow minority audiences to feel pride at seeing people like them on screen. It was to be a film that starred the community: “All the faces Norman Rockwell never painted.” That film was Sweet Sweetback's Baad Assss Song.

Now, Melvin's son Mario has developed into one of the current generation of African American filmmakers. He has made a movie about his father's making of Sweetback. Mario’s film was originally titled How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass. It has been shortened to Baadasssss!

Baadasssss! is in part a tribute to his father for the revolution he started in filmmaking. Sweetback was made without studio money. (Yeah, like the studios were going to give money for this.) It was made without union tradesmen, who at time were all white and were too expensive for his limited budget. Melvin wanted the crew to reflect society - men and women, white, black, Asian, Hispanic. He wanted to be able to make the film that he wanted to make. He wouldn't even submit it to the ratings board (also all white), accepting an X rating. There were myriad obstacles to overcome, some from lack of money, some from the system that was rigged against change. Melvin found ways to get the film made. He was a man with a mission that he was determined to fulfill.

There is another side of Baadasssss! as well. Just as Mario is making a tribute to Melvin, he is also visiting some of the tensions that fill the father and son relationship. In many ways, Melvin was willing to sacrifice everything to make this film - even his relationship with his children. He wasn't above exploiting them. In fulfilling that mission, he didn't seem to care what damage he did along the way - to others or even to himself. Melvin is a very flawed person, but his instructions to Mario about the story was to not make him out to be nice.

It is impressive that Mario (who besides writing and directing, also plays his father in the film) can deal with such personal and sensitive material. He is telling the story of a man he loves, but also a man that in many ways he still doesn't know. He treats him fairly, but not always kindly. He also seems to realize that in many ways he is truly his father's son.

The elder Van Peebles was indeed a pioneer for black and for independent film makers. Sweetback was revolutionary in that it gave voice to what people of color felt. The violence and the black empowerment message may not have been what white people wanted to hear, but it was certainly something the African American community resonated with. The film filled theaters and showed the studios that the African American community was hungry for films that showed black empowerment. In response, the studios began producing a number of “Blaxploitation” films, such as Shaft and Superfly.

Baadasssss! is one of the best films I've seen this year. It has a quality of rooting for the underdog that we so often love. This time, the underdog is out to undermine an oppressive society that is our own. Even as a white person, I cheer him on to “take it to the Man.”

Baadasssss! reminds us that there has been a great deal of change in the ways people of color are treated in the entertainment media. We would no longer tolerate a character like Stepin Fetchit, whose on-screen persona was always denigrated.

However, we can still see some of the same dynamics at work in today's entertainment as were common in the time Sweetback was being made. One of the trailers shown before Baadasssss! was for the upcoming Wayans Brothers’ movie, White Chicks. I can think of nothing more out of line with Baadasssss! than this kind of racial stereotyping comedy (with similarities to Watermelon Man). People of color have found better roles, but far too often, they are relegated to the same kind of demeaning roles that have always been their lot. Films continue to be one of the means that perpetuate systemic racism, but we usually fail to notice (at least white people such as I).

Baadasssss! is an example of a film that reminds us of the racism that is certainly a part of our past, but also lets us reflect the way it still eats away at the fabric of our society and still affects the way we see the people around us.

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