Streaming: IFC Films Unlimited/Prime Video
Warnings:
Racism
Violence
Rating: Not Rated
The Black Power Mixtape is a documentary made of compiled footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists documenting the Black Power movement in the United States from 1967-1975. The archival footage is overlaid with commentary and interviews from African American artists, activists, musicians and scholars. This documentary is vital when understanding the historical impact of the Black Power movement, especially when considering the current political climate of the United States. The film is divided chronologically from 1967-1975 and it focuses on several topics ranging from Black Power, the opposition of the Vietnam war, The Black Panther Party, covert FBI operations, and the War on Drugs. The film includes people who were significant to the movement including Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and Bobby Seale (to name a few). The Black Power Mixtape also includes archival footage of Martin Luther King Jr., Louis Farrakhan, Emile de Antonio, Richard Nixon, and Ingrid Dahlberg. Some of the commentary carrying the film includes but isn’t limited to Erykah Badu, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Talib Kweli, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez and Abiodun Oyewole. The historical importance of this film is essential to understanding American history, and it is an interesting perspective simply because it was filmed by Swedish journalists. The archival footage as well as the editing joined with the commentary creates a masterful film that shows the audience a side of America that hasn’t been shown to a mass audience before. The Black Power Mixtape is so powerful, it was nominated for numerous awards and won the Editing Award World Cinema Documentary from the Sundance Film Festival, the Best Editing from the Gulbagge Awards, and the Best Documentary from the African American Film Critics Association.
The first most important element to discuss about The Black Power Mixtape is the historical importance. In the United States, a lot of history isn’t properly taught, and this documentary allows an audience who might not know about this history, to see the truth for the first time. This film pushes the envelope by prominently featuring activists who were considered “dangerous” or “a threat” to the American people. The Black Power Mixtape not only discusses the concept of Black Power and what it means, it also discusses how the government has marginalized generations of people within the United States on purpose. This film makes connections that have not been seen before to American audiences and allows the audience to understand what the Black Power movement was actually all about, rather than what it was misconstrued to be. Diane Archer of Film Comment stated that The Black Power Mixtape is “a chronological musically structured collage tracing the arc of the Black Power movement from its inception during the civil rights era through its dissolution as drugs began to erode black communities in the Seventies, created with rarely seen footage culled from the archives of Swedish Television.” The two main historical events the film does a good job covering specifically is the Civil Rights Movement and the effects of the War on Drugs. These two events are framed to be highly relevant to the Black Power movement throughout the documentary.
Another important element of the film are the interviews, the commentary that carries The Black Power Mixtape create an interesting approach to storytelling that isn’t often utilized in documentaries. Usually, the interviewee is seen throughout the film however, just the voices of the interviewees are used. This creates an effective way to focus on the content rather than who is speaking which can at times become distracting in certain approaches. One memorable part of the film features Erykah Badu singing during her commentary and the editor joins her voice with images of children in poverty who were not going to be able to eat breakfast that morning. At this point of the film, they were discussing free breakfast and lunch that the Black Panthers would provide, so it was certainly a powerful way to get that message across. Talib Kweli adds to an interesting part of the film where he discusses knowledge, and his commentary is joined with a Black elder who owns a historical bookstore. Editing choices like this adds to the points that the interviewees were trying to make, they allow the audience to understand their commentary on another level. Editors Göran Olsson and Hanna Lejonqvist did a wonderful job capturing the perspectives of their interviewees through the archival footage they used.
The archival footage throughout the film is shocking and informative. The Black Power Mixtape uses footage that was predominantly never seen by an American audience, so a lot of this imagery was lost in history. Luckily it was discovered 30 years later in a cellar of Swedish Television. Without this footage, this documentary would not exist, and the American Audience would not have seen a great deal of our country’s own history. The archival footage included is one of the only interviews of Angela Davis in jail. This thoughtful interview with Angela has become quite famous and has been used in other documentaries since then. Police Brutality is an additional thing that is highlighted in the film, the only thing that has changed about the police are their uniforms. The Black Power Mixtape makes a point to include footage of people discussing their treatment from police back then which is a devastating comparison to make when considering the issue with police brutality today. The Black Power Mixtape has a lot of elements within it but through the editing, commentary and archival footage the film makes interesting and significant points about the Black Power movement.
The Black Power Mixtape is not necessarily a film to watch when you want to feel better about being a citizen of the United States. However, it certainly is an inspirational film that makes the audience feel encouraged to work towards change for the future. The Black Power Mixtape is informative and educational when it comes to the civil rights movement as well as the Black Power movement and it is important to continue educating people properly about this history. Through the editing, archival footage and thought-provoking commentary, this film allows the audience to understand a different perspective of American history. I highly recommend watching this documentary film when you want to learn something new about the United States.