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Arts & Entertainment

An Evening with Melvin Van Peebles

Join us for a celebration of the life and work of legendary African-American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer Melvin Van Peebles, featuring a screening of the movie Baadasssss!. He is a pioneer of black cinema most famous for creating the acclaimed film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which heralded a new era of African American focused films. Turned down by every major studio including Columbia, where he had a three-picture deal, Melvin was forced to basically self-finance. Risking everything, he delivered to the first Black Ghetto hero on the big screen—whether they were ready or not... Nominated for eleven Tony Awards in 1972, for his Broadway Play "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death;" and in 1973, for Musical "Don't Play Us Cheap,” Mr. Melvin Van Peebles is noted as one of the first triple threats in black Hollywood. His other films include The Story of a Three-Day Pass, The Watermelon Man, and Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha. In 2003, Melvin’s son, Mario Van Peebles wrote and directed the film Baadasssss!, a lively and entertaining look at the making of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song starring himself as his dad. The real-life father and son dynamic brings an intimacy to this inspiring and often hilarious tribute to the father of black cinema.

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