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back's actions in the desert are avatars of his primal African
origin--an indication that the survival instinct has not been bred
out of him by life in the ghetto or by years of fighting the man.
He exchanges his clothes with a drifter in order to throw the po-
lice off his scent, he cuts the head off a lizard and eats it raw for
nourishment, he urinates in the sand to make a salve to heal the
gaping gunshot wound in his side, and he kills a pursuing pack
of bloodhounds with his pocket knife. At the end of the film it
is clear that Van Peebles has shown more than the radicaliza-
tion of an urban pimp, for Sweetback emerges as the prototype
of the aware black man who will not only survive but, as the
legend which flashes across the screen in the closing frames in-
dicates, is determined to prevail.With a few exceptions, notably Richard Mason's Ghetto and
Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, the
newly emerging black film makers have made no important
aesthetic contributions to the art of the film. Although the sig-
nificance of their work is primarily sociological and political,
the importance of these films as social documents cannot be over-
emphasized. By replacing the Hollywood stereotype with a new
image of the Negro, these films have played an important role
in the development of Black Pride or Black Consciousness. And
because they are often directed toward the anxieties, frustrations,
and aspirations of the black audience, many of the films have an
immediacy that makes them powerful weapons of propaganda.
And finally, these films afford white audiences valuable insights
into the psyche of the Black man--insights which are perhaps
necessary if a disastrous confrontation between the races is to be
avoided.
NOTES
1. Film Making as a Special Non-School Related Project for Urban Area
Students and Dropouts, Brooks Foundation, Santa Barbara, California
( September 6, 1966), p. 3.
2. You Dig It? is available in a 16 mm black and white print from Frith
Films, 1275 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, California.
3. Ghetto is available in a 16 mm color print from Mobilization for Youth,
214 East 2nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10009.

-199-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: Popular Culture and the Expanding Consciousness. Contributors: Ray B. Browne - editor. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1973. Page Number: 199.
    
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