In 1971, filmmaker-musician-dramatist-commodities trader Melvin Van Peebles launched a movie revolution with his über-low-budget, highly political indie flick, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.

Melvin Van Peebles, whose low-budget 1971 phenomenon, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” — an X-rated film about a Black revolutionary’s survival on the run — proved a milestone of independent and ...

Filmmaker and author Melvin Van Peebles has died at the age of 89. The rebel director known for his groundbreaking "blaxploitation" films, passed on Sept. 21 surrounded by his family, the Criterion ...

NEW YORK — The Godfather of Black Cinema has died. Melvin Van Peebles, the groundbreaking filmmaker known for writing, co-producing, scoring, editing and starring in the 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback's ...

Melvin Van Peebles discusses his career with his son, director and actor Mario Van Peebles, including starting to direct in France, his award-winning film The Story of a Three Day Pass, and kicking ...

Melvin Van Peebles was many things, an independent filmmaker, actor, author, playwright, poet, painter and musician. He died Tuesday at the age of 89. Here he is talking to NPR in 2006 about writing ...

Influential black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles has died aged 89, his family has said. Van Peebles, known for 1970s "blaxploitation" films Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, died on ...

Melvin Van Peebles, who died Sept. 21 at 89, was not the inventor of Black cinema, but it’s no exaggeration to say that he smashed open the door to Black cinema as we know it. It’s a door that, until ...

Melvin Van Peebles, the groundbreaking filmmaker, playwright and musician whose work ushered in the “blaxploitation” wave of the 1970s and influenced filmmakers long after, has died. He was 89. In ...