Black Panthers - Black is Honest and Beautiful...

Black Panthers (original title) is listed by IMDb with the title "Huey" (1968). However, we saw it with the original title. This half-hour documentary was directed by the French filmmaker Agnès Varda.

Varda went to a Black Panther rally in Oakland. The Panthers were demanding that the government free Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther party. Newton was on trial, accused of murdering a police officer.

Beside filming the rally itself, Varda filmed an interview with Newton himself while he was in jail, In addition, she interviewed or recorded H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver.

The Black Panthers Party was a revolutionary party, and they made no secret of the necessity to use violence to obtain their goals. They considered themselves at war with the Oakland Police Department. (Probably, the feeling was mutual.)

This is a historically important movie, especially for those who aren't old enough to remember the events of the late 1960's. It's also a lesson in the craft of documentary filmmaking, as exemplified by Agnès Varda. I would sum it up as "speak softly, but get the footage you need."

We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre in the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. It's part of a Varda retrospective, co-sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology and the Eastman Museum. I'm sure it will work well on the small screen.

P.S. Newton was eventually convicted of manslaughter, but a higher court overturned the verdict. He had two more trials, both of which ended in hung juries. Ultimately, the government gave up.

Bless Agnès Varda for making this short documentary, and for the most part simply allowing members of the Black Panthers to state their views and explain the motivation behind the Black Power movement. The issues are the same as those faced today by the community, and it certainly resonates to hear them speak of stopping the police from killing black people, or of incarceration as being stilted against minorities. The film was made around the time of the Huey Newton trial, and after governor Ronald Reagan had hypocritically overturned California's open carry law once black people started taking advantage of it. Mostly it consists of footage of people at rallies to "Free Huey!," interviews with leaders like Newton and Stokely Carmichael, and comments from supporters. It also includes great commentary from Kathleen Cleaver explaining the significance of black women wearing their hair naturally, in afros.

The film is a snapshot in time during the summer of 1968 which made it fascinating to me, but I wish it had been longer and more fleshed out. It probably should have also asked a critical question or two about the movement looking to Mao Zedong as a role model, given the brutality of his regime and the millions he killed. On the other hand, millions of black people had (and have) died in the system they were in with its widespread racism, so one can understand searching for an alternative, and becoming as assertive as they did when progress didn't just gradually happen. I loved how Varda provided a few moments of gentle narration, explaining to audiences the reasons for what seemed like a dangerous and possibly violent movement. This is well worth a half hour, and something to reflect on over half a century later.

In 1968 the Black Panther Party (BPP) was at its most active and probably its height of popularity. This very brief documentary has several interviews/speeches which give a quick glimpse into what the BPP was demanding. There is footage of Kathleen Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton (one of the founders of the BPP). Kathleen and Stokely are two very well-spoken civil rights activists, or freedom fighters if you dare, and that is evident in this short documentary. At the time of this documentary Huey P. Newton, , was locked up for getting into a shootout with police. There is a little commentary from the documentarian, Agnes Varda, but just about everything else comes from the mouths of the Panthers themselves.

While her husband Jacques Demy was in L. A. filming MODEL SHOP (1969), Agnes Varda was in Oakland Directing this Documentary short centered on the protests trying to free Black Panther leader Huey Newton (who is interviewed in prison). The resulting film is an interesting 'you are there' look at the group.

Varda and her team got incredible access to document the group (and not just their protests). Members speak directly to the camera and without filter. There is no question that Varda's sympathies lie with the Panthers. An unidentified American woman narrates (surprising that her name has never been revealed). It's simple and straightforward, but, always tilted in favor of the group.

Originally, this was supposed to air on French TV, but, the government got cold feet over the incendiary image of the Panthers and didn't broadcast it. The short has been beautifully restored and looks and sounds fantastic. The 16mm footage retains it's verite feel, but, the restoration is so fine one swears it could be 35mm.

Streaming on Criterion and other outlets; Also available on DVD.

The Black Panthers are organizing in Oakland to rally for Huey P. Newton's freedom. He and Bobby Seale had used their second amendment freedom to monitor the police force which was well-known to be oppressive. It talks about the killing of an unarmed young black man by the police. It's a documentary of the black power movement of that time. It sounds very familiar. There are differences. It's a bigger movement today and a more wide-spread one. Back in the day, the mostly black movement has to deal with the Vietnam war but most other issues remain the same. There is a bending toward justice over the years and it's always interesting to see the progression.