We raved about it several months ago in Caught In The Net, now The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution is coming to the Dublin IFI on Friday October 30 for a limited run.
“Change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored - cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights,” reads the blurb. “A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change.
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.”
The Metropolis-bound Nile Rodgers was a member of the Harlem Black Panthers in the 1970s and writes about his experiences in his equally excellent Le Freak autobiography.
Sadly, with all the racial profiling and police brutality against young black men in the States, the film’s subject matter remains very relevant.