Black Panthers

1968 [FRENCH]

Documentary

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 83%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 83%
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 3008 3K

woman director short film short

Plot summary

A film shot during the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California around the meetings organised by the Black Panthers Party to free Huey Newton, one of their leaders, and to turn his trial into a political debate. They tried and succeeded in catching America’s attention.

Director

Agnès Varda Photo
Agnès Varda

Top cast

Huey P. Newton Photo
Huey P. Newton as Self
Bobby Seale Photo
Bobby Seale as Self
Stokely Carmichael Photo
Stokely Carmichael as Self
H. Rap Brown Photo
H. Rap Brown as Self
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
263.02 MB
1280*936
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 28 min
Seeds ...
489.07 MB
1478*1080
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 28 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by boblipton 7 / 10

Historically Important

While Agnes Varda was in California shooting "Uncle Yanco", she made this short documentary about a rally to free Huey Newton after he had been jailed, as the documentary tells us, a shoot-out with the police that ended with ten people injured and one cop dead.Mme. Varda shoots and edits this as an anthropological study, with only Back people speaking; indeed, you have to look carefully to spot a Caucasian in the background. Having grown up in this era, I note that it's a useful corrective to the usual coverage of events like this, in which one heard White people talking about the racial divide and how to deal with it.
Reviewed by flunkybuckets 7 / 10

Captures the revolutionary sprit of the Black Panthers.

For any younger person such as myself who wasn't alive during the 60's and it's numerous radical movements, "Black Panthers" is a good historical piece of film. Vardas is definitely not objective here and is clearly rooting for the Black Panthers, but I can't really blame her when the opposition is the FBI and Oakland police. Behind all the dry summaries and articles about the Black Panthers is a truly revolutionary spirit of an oppressed people. This film does a wonderful job capturing that spirit during one of the more important times for the Black Panthers, which was the trial of Huey Newton. I especially appreciated the extended interview of Huey Newton himself while he was in jail, footage of the underappreciated Stokely Carmicheal who was one of the more intellectual figures, and the focus on woman in the Black Panther party. I wish there was more of a focus on differing parties in the movie, like the cops or white reactionaries. Not so the film could claim to be objective but because the claims of the Black Panthers (racism, fascism,etc.) could be shown as context for their rallies. In addition, there isn't much actual filmmaking shown here, just that a team was present. I would suggest the amazing "Harlan County" for a documentary that shows the spirit and soul of the movement, not just by showing up, but through filmmaking skills.Overall it's a good visualizer of an interesting and important part of radical history in the U.S.
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