The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

91% of critics liked it
(45 reviews)
83% of users liked it
(976 ratings)

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement-Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge… More The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement-Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them-the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this lush collection was found languishing in the basement of Swedish Television. Director Göran Olsson and co-producer Danny Glover bring this footage to light in a mosaic of images, music and narration chronicling the evolution one of our nation's most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Music by Questlove and Om'Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle -- including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles -- give the historical footage a fresh, contemporary resonance and makes the film an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution. -- (C) IFC

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Goran Olsson, Göran Hugo Olsson
Written By: Goran Olsson
Genres: Documentary

In Theaters: Sep 9, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Dec 13, 2011
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Broken into nine chapters -- one for each year -- the documentary isn't a rigorous work but a felt piece of vital, if flawed, art.
Tom Long, Detroit News
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is not your standard documentary dealing with racism in America.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
A film that suffers from a surfeit of credulity.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
You watch the material here and wonder whether most of the movies made about black people are meant to pacify general audiences, to distract them from demanding more of the movies.
David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle
It is mostly impressionistic - but, wow, some of those impressions really pack a punch.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
This chronicle of pride and social upheaval is filled with vintage images and important voices.
John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
The 'mixtape' designation is apt. This episodic movie doesn't really come together, but its highlights make it worthwhile. (Eldridge Cleaver earns laughs when he names 'the three pigs' running for president: 'Oink Nixon, Oink Humphrey, and Oink Wallace.')
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
Offers some amazing footage and a surprisingly cohesive narrative, considering that this was old film stock newly discovered and reassembled by contemporary Swedish filmmakers.
Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)
The result is a film that doesn't chart the rise and fall of the black power movement, and viewers unfamiliar with civil rights history will likely be lost. But it does give insight into the frustration and anger that sparked the movement.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...we see our parents and ourselves refracted through a cool if subjective lens, and it's easy to wonder exactly how we made it.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
What is most impressive about the film is that it manages to put human faces -- not just caricatures -- on the key figures of the movement.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It's thrilling to hear from unrepentant revolutionaries such as Angela Davis and amusing to hear from their bell-bottomed white lawyers.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
It may not add up to a narrative, but it's a fascinating compilation -- a mixtape you may want to hear more than once.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Mixtape" is about a foreign country. And the foreign country is ours.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Impressively made documentary that paints a fascinating portrait of an important period in American history, not least because the perspective stands in stark contrast to the American media's coverage of the same events at the time.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
This fascinating documentary brings together material shot by Swedish documentarists and TV journalists dealing with the African American civil rights movement...
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
The timing of this release is more than perfect. And the story behind the film is nearly as interesting as the stories it tells.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
It is not a comprehensive history but the footage is an extraordinarily potent reminder that the stand taken by black people eventually bore fruit.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Interesting stuff, though it sometimes looks like a block of unedited raw material.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
Blazing interviews with Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael supply stinging and unforgettable rhetoric: it simply can't fail with footage this wild.

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Walter M

"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" is a fascinating documentary, with the help of some commentary from the present day, that contains footage shot by Swedish broadcast crews of interviews and speeches by black leaders with highlights including Stokely Carmichael… More
"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" is a fascinating documentary, with the help of some commentary from the present day, that contains footage shot by Swedish broadcast crews of interviews and speeches by black leaders with highlights including Stokely Carmichael interviewing his mother, Eldridge Cleaver in exile in Algiers, Angela Davis in a jail cell on trumped up charges, and one great poem I wish I could remember. Of similar interest is interviews with anonymous people on the street, creating a sense of what it was like to live at the time and insights into the Black Panther Party. All of which forms a narrative of the black power movement from hope to resistance to persecution to repression to defeat, symbolized in epidemic drug abuse. As Stokely Carmichael said, Dr. King's message of nonviolence is all well and good, assuming the people in power have a conscience. On a personal level, what's sad for me is again looking to another country to learn about the history of the one where I live. Apparently in Sweden, they have no problem with those willing to think outside of the box on the left where the word radical is not a dirty word. On a less radical note, there is footage of Dr. King and Harry Belafonte being greeted by the King of Sweden. And then there is the Prime Minister of Sweden creating an international incident by comparing the bombing of Hanoi to Nazi war atrocities which while an exaggeration is still a war crime. So, Sweden gets accused of broadcasting anti-American propaganda by TV Guide, which if they had any knowledge of the publication they were dealing with, they would not be able to stop laughing.