The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement-Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them-the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is a fascinating chronological collage of 16mm footage originally shot for Swedish television, but left dormant until the director Göran Hugo Olsson reassembled the material as a “Documentary in 9 Chapters” which “does not presume to tell the whole story of the Black Power Movement, but to show how it was perceived by some Swedish filmmakers.” The film incorporates a funk music soundtrack and new voiceover materials interspersed throughout by Erykah Badu, Robin Kelley, Talib Kweli, Abiodun Oyewole, Harry Belafonte, and Angela Davis, among others. Disarming and intense, it becomes a haunting visual evocation of meaningful responses to a turbulent historical period. A must see.
