The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Good.........

Compiled from the forgotten footage of Swedish television journalists, Goran Hugo Olsson's "The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" is just what its title says: a mixtape -- no more, no less. The film samples very powerful voices from the 1960s and 1970s and injects contemporary commentary from older people who were involved with the movement and younger people (including Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, and Questlove (Amir Khalib Thompson) from The Roots) whose lives were changed by it.The Swedish journalists' footage is nothing short of electrifying. A great deal of the footage in the first half of the film captures the rise of the Black Panther Party, which was not simply composed of gun-toting militant people, as the media so carelessly (or perhaps deliberately) portrayed. In fact, BPP members like Ericka Huggins were running community schools and trying to better the education available to Black communities; BPP initiatives like the Free Breakfast for Children programs sought to meet basic needs for Black communities. Self-defense was simply another initiative to serve the people and protect them from unwarranted brutality and violence.Moreover, the personal interviews are astounding. A personal interview with Angela Davis as she sits in prison shows her speaking fiercely about the historical legacy of violence in Black communities. In another clip, Stokely Carmichael gently interviews his own mother as she talks about their family's dealings with racism. The intimacy and candor of these interviews and speeches grant a sense of immediacy to names that we only read about in books or hear about in class (that is, if we get the opportunity to learn about people like Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton beyond a cursory overview).Again and again, the voices in the film echo a general feeling of frustration in the Black Power movement--a frustration with the ineffectiveness of nonviolence, a frustration with the continuing brutality and violence in their communities, a frustration with the status quo that they wanted desperately to change. In one notable instance, this frustration manifests when Stokely Carmichael explains to an audience in Stockholm that "Dr. King's policy was if you are nonviolent--if you suffer--your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: in order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none."As the Black Power movement wanes, the Swedish journalists look to other subject matter. We see some footage of neo-Garveyite Lewis Michaux ("the Professor") and his Harlem-based National Memorial African Bookstore, which served as a hub for writers, artists, and leaders of the time. There's a moving interview with a young woman who recounts how she resorted to prostitution to feed her heroin addiction. In another clip (one that lasts longer than it should), Louis Farrakhan talks about his revamped iteration of the Nation of Islam in the 1970s; historian and scholar Robin Kelley contextualizes the rising prominence of the discipline-centric NOI in Black communities that were falling victim to the chaos of increasing drug addition and violence.Rather than offer an extensive didactic lecture on the Black liberation movement, "The Black Power Mixtape" prefers to let the footage speak for itself. The footage crafts a powerful narrative that captures not only the leading voices of the movement but also the voices of day-to-day life in Black communities. Insofar as this documentary is a mixtape, it cannot be comprehensive. But it certainly offers powerful footage and provoking commentary that reminds viewers that the movement is not over. There remains much change to be effected in contemporary society. This film provides some much-needed inspiration.

The footage was very clear and the narrating was provided by various prominent figures in the Black Community. Loved it

I had heard about this film, for a good six months, before my local PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) broadcast it, for Black History Month. This takes a very honest look at the Black Power Movement of the United States, in the mid-1960s and 1970s. Written and directed by Goran Hugo Olsson, a Swedish filmmaker, we get a unique perspective, through the eyes of a White/European documentarian, interspersing reel footage with audio commentary from people like Erykah Badu (musician/activist), Harry Belafonte (musician/actor/activist), Stokely Carmichael (Trinidadian-American activist), Angela Davis (activist/author/professor), Talib Kweli (hip hop artist/activist), Melvin Van Peebles (actor/director/activist), and Sonia Sanchez (writer/activist/educator), who give us their own viewpoints on the effect of systemized, insular oppression on the African American public in the United States.We see footage from Malcolm X and his debate, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Black Panther meetings for youth, and community members living at (or below) the poverty line. The narrative is strong, the interview passages are engaging, and the viewer gets a very raw and unfiltered sense of the darkness imposed on the people by the powers that be. Of course, it depends on who you ask. The filmmaker starts the film by interviewing a fifty year old white restauranteur, in a small East Coast town. He seems to be convinced that everyone has a good chance at eating a piece of the pie, and that there is no division amongst peoples. When we go on to see the reality of the squalor, open and close fisted racism, and the words of numerous activists who were considered modern day terrorists, for wanting to rough up the status quo - in protest of acts of inhumanity and "civil" displays of racial disparity.I am grateful that this film exists. It has a brilliant soundtrack by Ahmir Questlove Thompson and Om'Mas Keith. Every history class in the United States, and the world should screen this film in their room. It would really give our young people a greater sense of the hardships that many of our African American brothers and sisters have been up against for generations - dating back to slavery, and earlier. A must see.

So much of our history as black people is lost. Especially in regards to our history and experiences within the united states. Today, 2020, I believe a lot of people especially young people have forgotten about what our ancestors have gone through to make us so overly comfortable with the way things are today. This film is a reminder that the fight continues until there is TRUE equality and I'm not just talking about pay rates or living in safe neighborhoods. I'm talking about implicit equality! I'm talking about the fumigation and extermination of this country's subtle and implicit racism that is experienced each and every day and is so hard to identify and address because it's not explicit anymore like it was in the 60s and 70s. They got us by the implicit neatly package progressive facade that is not truly there to uplift black folks and oppressed communities but to confuse us to rest and be comfortable with what we are handed as if to just be grateful things aren't as they used to be. But just because things aren't as they used to be doesn't mean that things are ok. Please be reminded of the infinite work left to be done within this country in order to eradicate the ever-persistent existence of racism and sexism that lies in the colorblind lense of its inhabitants

A critical examination of historical events around the struggle for racial equality in the USA in the second half of the 20th century. Much classic footage. Bought for a present and was very well received by the lady whose birthday it was. Would recommend the seller, who was very efficient and charged a reasonable price.

A very rare and insightful overview of a pivotal racially and politically charged era in American history. The footage of interviews with Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davies and others are a gold dust; as well as the commentaries by Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, etc.I for one did not know that the drugs epidemic in Black urban communities in America has a direct link to troops returning from the Vietnam conflict! I won't give too much else away suffice to say that anyone who purchases this landmark Swedish documentary will not be disappointed.

If you are interested in human rights or the 70s, then this is for you. Its really unusual to see U.S. news from a European viewpoint; the film brings alive Black Power Giants I had only heard of but never seen, Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael, for example. Really gratifying is to see they accurately reflect the movement as one of being about self empowerment-through education and breakfast club schemes-rather than only focusing on the self defence element of their philosophy.The DVD has an extra short film about a woman who reflects the confusion about identity that can be experienced by the children of immigrants.Recommended.

Enlightening and very powerful. I'm wiping tears from my eyes as I'm writing this. School life was hard but this is so brutal, I got off lightly!This should be on mainstream tv daily to educate the whole world! ✊🏾

It is a fascinating picture of Black America in the 60's. It is thorough and fully documented and it sheds light on some prominent activists of the decade who have been forgotten or are just not known to the general public.G.Mc Menemy.