Melvin Van Peebles lands Gotham Independent Film Awards Tribute
By Robert Levin
Special to amNewYork
Melvin Van Peebles’ “Story of a 3-Day Pass” and “Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Mutha” are screening at the Museum of Modern Art Monday. “Pass” 6:15pm; “Mutha” 8pm, $10.
In 1971, Melvin Van Peebles changed the film world forever when he directed, wrote and starred in “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” the movie credited with introducing the Blaxploitation genre.
It also provided a blueprint for the creation of financially viable independent cinema that has been followed by multiple successors.
Since that seminal accomplishment, Van Peebles has remained a leading cultural voice across a wide swath of media. He’s still writing and directing movies, but he has also written novels, acted and composed several albums. In recognition, he will receive a special tribute at the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, held tomorrow at Cipriani Wall Street.
amNewYork spoke to Van Peebles about his career.
Why do you think there’s been a recent increase in interest in your work?
What I did was extremely controversial. It didn’t exist before. So it takes time for what I did to become close enough to the mainstream that it can be acknowledged. As time has taken the fight out of it, people are able to see what I did.
Do you like the attention?
It’s nice, but I’ve been pleased all along because whether or not I got personal accolades was not really the point of what I was hoping to do for independent film. [I wanted to demonstrate] the possibility of getting a whole different light to the public. And that’s what happened. I’m pleased.
How do you think “Sweet Sweetback” changed filmmaking?
“Sweetback” was the highest grossing independent film. That doesn’t mean anything except when you realize it was grossing as much as a major film, which had never happened. After that, it showed there were possibilities for independent films, not just black films. It added a whole new dimension to American filmmaking. That’s what’s so exciting.
