Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Melvin Van Peebles, 1971.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #223, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.
Summary: Thematic depictions of dead animals.
Details:
1) Brief but typical fish cleaning, 1:09:09-1:09:14.
2) A lizard is killed and partially eaten, 1:25:21-1:25:55.
3) The closing montage includes landscapes intercut with images of two dead dogs in a river, 1:34:54-1:36:14.
This was my first viewing of Van Peeble’s crucial debut work. I enjoyed and welcome this glimpse into how an intellectual young black man might view urban culture of 1970. I more often hear such voices through music, and here is a film that smacks visually of music by Coleman or Ayler. Some of the Van Peebles-written soundtrack sounded a little like Ayler’s Holy Ghost series compositions.
Bowling pin game around 37 minutes in.