St. Claire Bourne Movies

Melvin Van Peebles created a new style of African-American filmmaking in 1971, when on a shoestring budget he made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a violent action picture about a sex-show stud on the run from the police that below the surface served as a call for revolution in the black community. But Sweet Sweetback was hardly Van Peebles' first or only bold achievement in the arts. After brief careers piloting cable cars in San Francisco and flying fighter planes in the Korean War, Van Peebles moved to Paris, where he wrote five novels, became a regular contributor to an anarchist journal, and directed his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass. On the strength of its critical acclaim, Van Peebles returned to America and made his first (and only) major studio film, Watermelon Man, which helped him gather the money and connections it took to make Sweet Sweetback. Alongside these cinematic triumphs, Van Peebles launched a recording career in the late '60s, making literate but streetwise albums that paved the way for rap and hip-hop, and staged a series of hit Broadway plays including Don't Play Us Cheap and Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. In the 1980s, Van Peebles switched careers and became a successful Wall Street options trader, and watched his son Mario Van Peebles become a star. (Mario would also go on to make a film about his dad's adventures making Sweet Sweetback, entitled Baadasssss!) How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) is a documentary made with Van Peebles' participation that looks back at his multi-faceted career and the brilliant, uncompromising man behind it all. The film includes interviews with a number of Van Peebles' colleagues and admirers, including Spike Lee, Gil Scott-Heron, Gordon Parks, and Elvis Mitchell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this video, viewers consider the work and life of Gordon Parks. Perhaps best known as a photojournalist, Parks was also a novelist, poet, musician, and filmmaker. This video offers commentary on every facet of this man's remarkable career, concentrating on the motivation and techniques he used in creating his best-known work, his portraits of American poverty and racial tension. Along with his photography, Parks is well remembered for the essays that accompanied his photos, essays that influenced the way people approached the subjects he documented. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Paul Robeson was a distinguished and widely acclaimed figure in music, theater and film; as a singer, actor and educator, Robeson was one of the best known and best respected African Americans of the 1930's. However, Robeson was also politically outspoken as few performers were in his day, and his brave support of a variety of progressive causes gained him a reputation as a committed leftist at a time when that was career suicide in the entertainment industry. Paul Robeson: Here I Stand explores his life as an artist, an activist and a human being, featuring rare film of Robeson in concert (including his classic version of "Ol' Man River"), clips from his movies, newsreel footage and interviews with his friends and associates, including Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger and Uta Hagen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this inspirational sports drama, a talented but drug-addicted basketball player cleans up his act and devotes his life to teaching Harlem children to play the game. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The blues idiom is one of the oldest and most vibrant in American music. This documentary pays homage to some of the great names in the genre. The program takes the viewer to Chicago to hear the gritty blues of guitarist Son Seals. Also featured are Queen Sylvia Embry, Jim Brewer, and Billy Branch. Conversations with the musicians on subjects including life, poverty, war, and music, are interspersed with cuts of hard-driving blues. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

In Motion: Amiri Baraka is a fascinating portrait of the poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, activist, and champion of black rights Amiri Baraka. Born Leroi Jones in Newark, NJ, in 1934, the documentary explores his early days as a poet in New York's Greenwich Village and traces his life story to his literary and political activities in the 1990s. Excerpts from Baraka's plays, including The Dutchman, one of the archetypal pieces of the 1960s, are interwoven into the in-depth account of Baraka's artistic development and social activism.
~ Sally Barber, All Movie Guide