Yesterday Will Make You Cry [a Novel] by Melvin Van Peebles

His most famous work - which some consider part of the Blaxploitation genre - was made quickly on a shoestring budget. It meant appreciating the power, beauty and interconnectivity of all people.”Ī true Renaissance man, Van Peebles - who influenced a younger generation of Black filmmakers including Spike Lee and John Singleton - was a novelist, playwright, songwriter, musician and painter. True liberation did not mean imitating the colonizer’s mentality. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth? We want to be the success we see, thus we need to see ourselves being free. “Dad knew that Black images matter,” Mario said in a statement. Son Mario Van Peebles followed in his father’s footsteps, directing films such as New Jack City. “His work continues to be essential and is being celebrated at the New York Film Festival this weekend with a 50th anniversary screening of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song a Criterion Collection box set, Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, next week and a revival of his play Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, slated for a return to Broadway next year.” “In an unparalleled career distinguished by relentless innovation, boundless curiosity and spiritual empathy, Melvin Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape through his films, novels, plays and music,” the statement read. His family, the Criterion Collection and Janus Films confirmed his death in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. Melvin Van Peebles, the groundbreaking filmmaker known for writing, co-producing, scoring, editing and starring in the 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, died Tuesday night at his home in Manhattan. NEW YORK - The Godfather of Black Cinema has died.

Yesterday Will Make You Cry [a Novel] by Melvin Van Peebles