Black Panthers

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.

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.

I hadn't seen any of Agnes Varda's films until I caught The Gleaners and I a few months ago at a film festival. I loved it, mainly because of Varda's extremely personal aproach to some interesting material and questions. I was recently doing some research on sixties activism when I stumbled across Black Panthers, Varda's 1968 documentary about the Black Panther Party.

The 30 minute long film looks at a rally to free the party's leader, Huey P. Newton. There's no pretense of objectivity -- the Black Panther Party shared in the copyright. Speakers at the rally included Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, and H. Rap Brown, and there's also a short interview with Newton, in prison. Other segments include white people at a firing rage (some of which are children), and members of the police department explaining the gear they carry in the trunks of their cars.

This film documents some of the most important and controverial black leaders of the late 60s, and is a must see for anyone interested in sixties radicalism ot the Panthers.

Since Agnès Varda died recently, I decided to watch two of her short documentaries filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area. One is "Uncle Yanco", about her relative in Sausalito. But the more important one is "Black Panthers". This half-hour doc focuses on a Black Panther rally in Oakland in August, 1968. The main purpose of the rally is to call for the release of Huey Newton, in jail on charges of killing a cop. But the rally touches on a number of other things: police brutality towards the black community, the Vietnam War, and calls for worldwide unity against imperialism. In fact, one interviewee lays out several demands that the black community is making in its call for justice (freedom, decent housing, well-paying jobs, good education, etc). There's also an interview with Newton in jail, where he details the horrible treatment that he experiences.

Contrary to what a lot of people like to say, the Black Power Movement was not about "hating white people". It was about teaching the black community to defend itself and recognize the beauty in, among other things, natural hair. The Black Lives Matter movement is the heir to this.

Definitely watch this doc.

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.