Actor-writer-director-composer Melvin Van Peebles who highlighted Black economic empowerment and assisted in breaking in a new era of Black filmmaking with his most famous work, the 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song died Tuesday night at 89.
His death was confirmed by film distributor Criterion Collection in a statement from the family. No cause of death was given.
We are saddened to announce the passing of a giant of American cinema, Melvin Van Peebles, who died last night, at home with family, at the age of 89. In an unparalleled career, Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape. He will be deeply missed. pic.twitter.com/HpciXXVoYo
— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 22, 2021
His son, noted director and frequent collaborator Mario Van Peebles, had this to say about his legendary father: “Dad knew that Black images matter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth?” he said in the statement. “We want to be the success we see, thus we need to see ourselves being free. True liberation did not mean imitating the colonizer’s mentality. It meant appreciating the power, beauty and interconnectivity of all people.”
At the age of 75 Van Peebles spoke about what it was like for an African-American male growing up in the 1940s and ‘50s: “ ‘Boy’ was when you were a kid, and when you got old, ‘uncle.’ They’d never call you a man.” Of his own journey past that in-between period—the threatening “virility stage,” as he put it—he said: “Little old ladies used to pull their purses close to them when you’d walk by,” he said. “Now they smile.
“It’s all how you look at stuff,” he added. “And America gives you a lot of stuff to look at.”
