Black Panthers

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.

Miriam Makeba was one of the first African musicians who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots. Miriam Makeba was forced into exile in 1959. She sang for John F. Kennedy, performed with Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone, was married to Hugh Masekela and also Stokely Carmichael. Her life was tumultuous. She always stood for truth and justice. She fought for the oppressed most importantly for black Africans, as a campaigner against apartheid. She died November 2008 after a concert in Italy. Mika Kaurismäki's documentary, traces fifty years of her music and her performing life. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through interviews with her contemporaries we discover the remarkable journey of Miriam Makeba.

Moonshadows (Contras), Master Backup How right wing Central American immigrants in the Bay Area have formed a coalition with Eldridge Cleaver, the Moonies, and the CIA backed Contras and are affecting the wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

D'Angelo had it all: two platinum selling albums, a sold out world tour and a body chiselled to perfection. However, one day at the height of his career in 2000 the soul singer vanished. For 12 years he descended into darkness. Out of nowhere, in December 2014, his third album Black Messiah was suddenly released: soundtrack of the lost years.

A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.

From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, independent Algeria provided significant support to anti-colonial movements and revolutionaries worldwide. Successive presidents, Ahmed Ben Bella and then Houari Boumédiène, made Algiers a haven for activists fighting against colonial and racial oppression. Algiers the White became Algiers the Red. The internationalist Che Guevara established his base of operations there for his guerrilla activities in Africa. The African-American leader Eldridge Cleaver made it the international headquarters of the Black Panther Party. During this period, Algiers was known as "The Mecca of Revolutionaries."

A presentation of key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, MLK is followed through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King's stirring speeches, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by a wide range of celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman Charlton Heston, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Walter Matthau, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams III, Joanne Woodward, and James Earl Jones.

The story of how, in 1970, the social activism of young UCLA philosophy professor Angela Davis led her to become involved in a failed kidnapping attempt that ended in a shootout, four deaths, and her name on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

The story of how the radical Huey P. Newton developed the Black Panther Party based on his 10-point program for social reform.

A chronicle of the final chapters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, revealing a conflicted leader who faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum.

Driven to maintain social order, policing in the United States has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, American policing embodies one word: power.

The story of the Black Panthers is often told in a scatter of repackaged parts, often depicting tragic, mythic accounts of violence and criminal activity; but this is an essential story, vibrant, human; a living and breathing chronicle of a pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.

The important L.A. Newsreel film about the Black Panthers that was rediscovered and written about by USC professor David James. Featured in the film is rare footage of many of the important West Coast Panthers such as Masai Hewitt, David Hilliard, Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, Eldridge Cleaver, John Huggins, and as well as footage of the aftermath of the LAPD raid on the Los Angeles Panther Headquarters. Musically the film begins with the opening jazz music by Ornette Coleman and later features the call to arms anthem, “The End of Silence” written and sung by Panther Elaine Brown.

For one extraordinary week in February 1972, the Revolution WAS televised. DAYTIME REVOLUTION takes us back in time to the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono descended upon a Philadelphia broadcasting studio to co-host the iconic Mike Douglas Show, at that time the most popular show on daytime television, with a national audience of 40 million viewers each week. What followed was five unforgettable episodes of television, with Lennon and Ono at the helm and Douglas gamely keeping the show on track.

In his provocative 2021 book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, New York Times opinion columnist Charles M. Blow calls for a “reverse Great Migration” of African Americans from the North back to the South to upend today’s political power structures while reclaiming the land and culture they left behind. South to Black Power does more than illustrate Blow’s enlightening ideas; we journey through Blow’s personal story, from his childhood in Louisiana to his role as father to young adult children in New York City, showing us the hard-won truths behind his vision for the future.

In March 1997, social activist, former Black Panther, and author, Eldridge Cleaver sat down with Henry Louis Gates Jr. for a discussion of his life as a civil rights activist. It would be the last major interview Cleaver gave before his death in May 1998. This film draws on the 1997 interview, archival footage, and commentary from Cleaver's former wife Kathleen, as well as audio tapes of a 1975 interview that Gates did with Cleaver in Paris.

James Earl Jones narrates this fascinating and moving documentary about the life of the assassinated black leader through various sources.

Using government documents, archive footage and direct interviews with activists and former FBI/CIA officers, All Power to the People documents the history of race relations and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the 1960s and 70s. Covering the history of slavery, civil-rights activists, political assassinations and exploring the methods used to divide and destroy key figures of movements by government forces, the film then contrasts into Reagan-Era events, privacy threats from new technologies and the failure of the “War on Drugs”, forming a comprehensive view of the goals, aspirations and ultimate demise of the Civil Rights Movement…

Documentary celebrating the making of this 70’s cult favorite featuring interviews with Max Julien, director Michael Campus, producer Harvey Bernhard, filmmakers the Hughes Brothers, professor Todd Boyd, and writer Jessie Rhines, actors Anizette Chase, Dick Anthony Williams and Don Gordon. Produced for "The Mack" Special Edition DVD.

Concert film documentary. The John Sinclair Freedom Rally was a protest and concert in response to the imprisonment of John Sinclair for possession of marijuana held on December 10, 1971. Features performances from John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger

A need for national ethnic studies in colleges and social justice led to strikes at San Francisco State University.

A compelling document of the Black Panther Party leadership in 1967. This film contains a prison interview with Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton as well as an interview with Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, footage of the aftermath of the police assault against the Los Angeles Chapter headquarters, demonstrations to free Huey at Hutton Memorial Park and the Alameda County Court House and a recitation of the party's Ten-Point Platform by co-founder Bobby Seale. Newsreel's 19th, and one of their most widely distributed films, it was originally released as "Off the Pig," but has since seen release under the name Black Panther. This short film features drawings from activist artist Emory Douglas.

Hear the inside story of Huey Newton and the Black Panthers with this documentary that examines their efforts to promote the rights of African Americans as well as the organization's violent tactics, including the killing of a police officer. The film features a rare jailhouse interview with Newton discussing the role of revolution and civil disobedience, plus footage of several Panthers' bullet-riddled homes following police raids.

This film documents a rally in San Francisco sponsored by the Black Panther Party. Kathleen Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and other speakers addressed thousands of protesters demanding more rights for African Americans and calling for the release of Huey P. Newton.

Documentary film produced by American Documentary Films and the Black Panther Party from 1968, honoring Huey P. Newton's struggle for African American civil rights, advocating for his release from jail and addressing issues of racism in American society. Features scenes from the funeral of Bobby Hutton and the Huey P. Newton Birthday Rally in the Oakland Auditorium on February 17th 1968, with speeches by: Bobby Seale (who explains the Black Panther Party's 10 Point Program in detail); Ron Dellums; James Foreman; Charles R. Garry; Eldridge Cleaver; Bob Avakian; H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael. Also includes views of police officers showing the weapons and armor they carry in patrol cars and of African Americans discussing racism in American society. This film was scripted and directed by Sally Pugh.

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

Through a secret program called the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), there was a concerted effort to subvert the will of the people to avoid the rise "of a Black Messiah" that would mobilize the African-American community into a meaningful political force. This documentary establishes historical perspective on the measures initiated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI which aimed to discredit black political figures and forces of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Combining declassified documents, interviews, rare footage and exhaustive research, it investigates the government's role in the assassinations of Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and Martin Luther King Jr. Were the murders the result of this concerted effort to avoid "a Black Messiah"?