Melvin Van Peebles

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Melvin Van Peebles

Van Peebles at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
Born Melvin Peebles
August 21, 1932
Chicago, Illinois
Other name(s) Brer Soul
Occupation Actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, composer
Years active 1955—present

Melvin Van Peebles (born August 21, 1932) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright and composer, and the father of actor and director Mario Van Peebles.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Van Peebles was born Melvin Peebles in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the Air Force thirteen days after graduating from college, staying for three and a half years.[1] He lived in Mexico for a brief period, earning a living by painting portraits,[1] before coming back to the United States, where he started driving cable cars in San Francisco. He began writing about his experiences as a cable car driver. What evolved from an initially small article and a series of photographs was Van Peebles' first book, The Big Heart.[1]

One day, a passenger suggested that Van Peebles should become a filmmaker. He shot his first short film, Pickup Men for Herrick, in 1957.[1] He made two more short films during the same period. According to Van Peebles, "I thought they were features. Each one turned out to be eleven minutes long. I was trying to do features. I knew nothing."[1] As Van Peebles learned more about the filmmaking process, he found out that "I could make a feature for five hundred dollars. That was the cost of ninety minutes of film. I didn't know a thing about shooting a film sixteen to one or ten to one or none of that shit. Then I forgot you had to develop film. And I didn't know you needed a work print. All I can say is that after I did one thing he would say, 'Well, aren't you gonna put sound on it?' and I would go, 'Oh shit!' That's all I could say."[1]

[edit] Career

After Van Peebles completed his first short films, he took them with him to Hollywood in order to try and find work, but was unable to find anyone who wanted to hire him as a director. In New York City, Van Peebles met a man who saw his films and wanted to screen them in France. "And they said—'Jesus! This man's a genius! Where is he? He should be making films!'"[1] In France, Van Peebles learned the language and was hired to translate Mad magazine into French.[1] He began to write plays in French, utilizing the sprechgesang form of songwriting, where the lyrics were spoken over the music. This style carried over to Van Peebles' debut album, Brer Soul.[1]

Prior to entering Hollywood, Van Peebles directed the French film Story of a Three Day Pass (La Permission). His first Hollywood film was the 1970 comedy Watermelon Man, written by Herman Raucher. The movie told the story of a casually racist but well meaning white man who suddenly wakes up black and finds himself alienated from his friends, family and job. In 1970 Van Peebles was also to direct filming of the Powder Ridge Rock Festival which was banned by court injunction.

Van Peebles then wrote and directed the independent feature, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. His son Mario's 2004 film BAADASSSSS! tells the story behind his father's film. Despite the success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, he has directed only a few other films.

Melvin Van Peebles speaks English, French and Dutch. He was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Van Peebles was recently the subject of a documentary entitled How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (2005). Van Peebles' next project will be a double album with Madlib, to be released on Stones Throw Records. The first disc of the album will be Brer Soul Meets Quasimoto and the second disc will be the Madlib Invazion remix. Madlib had previously sampled Van Peebles heavily on both of his albums under the Quasimoto moniker.[2] He is also working on a new film, titled Confessions of an Ex-Doofus Mutha.[3][4]

[edit] Bibliography

  • (As "Melvin Van".) The Big Heart. San Francisco: Fearon, 1957. With photographs by Ruth Bernhard, a book about life on San Francisco's cable cars. "A cable car is a big heart with people for blood. The people pump on and off — if you think of it like that it is pretty simple" (p. 21).
  • La Permission, (1967)

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As director

[edit] Other credits

  • Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971 Broadway musical book and score)
  • Just an Old Sweet Song (also known as Down Home, Robert Ellis Miller, 1976) made for television; screenwriter and theme song
  • Greased Lightning (Michael Schultz, 1977) screenwriter
  • The Sophisticated Gents (Harry Falk, 1981) made for television; actor, screenwriter, song “Greased Lightning” and producer
  • The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Gilbert Moses, 1987) made for television; screenwriter
  • O.C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman, 1987) actor
  • Jaws: The Revenge (Joseph Sargent, 1987) actor
  • Sonny Spoon (1988) television series; actor
  • Posse (Mario Van Peebles, 1993) actor
  • Terminal Velocity (Deran Sarafian, 1994) actor
  • Panther (Mario Van Peebles, 1995) based on his novel Panther, screenwriter, actor and producer
  • The Shining (Mick Garris, 1997) television movie; actor
  • Melvin Van Peebles' Classified X (Mark Daniels, 1998) documentary; screenwriter, actor and executive producer)
  • The Hebrew Hammer (Jonathan Kesselman, 2003) actor

[edit] Discography

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i James, Darius (1995). That's Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury. ISBN 0312131925. 
  2. ^ MELVIN VAN PEEBLES & MADLIB – BRER SOUL MEETS LORD QUAS
  3. ^ Melvin Van Peebles interview from Suicide Girls
  4. ^ Village Voice: The MVP of Black Cinema

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Melvin Van Peebles