You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Pioneering Black Filmmaker and Artist Melvin Van Peebles Dies at 89

HeadlineSep 28, 2021

Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles — praised as the godfather of modern Black cinema — died in New York last week at the age of 89. Van Peebles is best known for his iconic 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” which is credited with launching the blaxploitation movie genre. Van Peebles was also an actor, novelist, playwright and composer.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top