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Interviews A Conversation With Filmmaker: Melvin Van Peebles
| A Conversation With Filmmaker: Melvin Van Peebles |
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| Written by Kam Williams | ||||||||
| Sunday, 25 March 2012 20:32 | ||||||||
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"How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)", a retrospective on the versatile maverick's entire career, reveals a man who also spent time as a novelist (in French), playwright, composer, painter, astronomer, enlisted man in the Air Force, and as a stock trader with a seat on the American Exchange on Wall Street. Last year, Van Peebles started doing shows in NYC with members of Burnt Sugar, under the name Melvin Van Peebles wid Laxative. In November, 2011, Melvin Van Peebles wid Laxative performed his song Love, that's America at Zebulon Cafe Concert, two weeks after the venue showcased the original video for this single involving Occupy Wall Street footage, which was uploaded to YouTube in October 2011. In speaking with blackfilm.com, Peebles shares his thoughts with me on just about everything and his documentary ''How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company''. [This interview was conducted in 2006] KW: Hey, Melvin [Peebles], thanks for the time. MVP: No problemo. KW: Congratulations on your new movie, and recent lifetime achievement awards, even if, in my opinion, the recognition is a bit overdue. MVP: Thanks, I'm really a happy camper, as they say. KW: Do you still have your seat on the American Stock Exchange? MVP: No longer. Unless you're going to be there continually, you don't want to keep your seat because, first of all, it costs, but also, doing stocks is not something you can phone in. You got to do it right, otherwise. KW: Were you one of those guys you see on the floor gesturing frantically? MVP: No, I was a trader for a company. That's different from the brokers who we sort of disdain as sort of just errand boys. KW: So, how did you spend your time on Wall Street? MVP: I had to do the mathematical calculations to arrive at whether I was going to buy or sell. KW: and you were successful enough at it to write about the market. MVP: I wrote a technical book about how to trade options. MVP: I like all of them. KW: How to "Eat Your Watermelon in White Company" shows you to be so much more than simply the actor who played Sweetback. To me, your contribution as a trailblazing director and producer is of equal importance. MVP: Normally, if I'm being acknowledged it is for something in front of the camera. This puts the spotlight on the fact that there are opportunities other than just being an actor. That's what I think our kids sorely need to know. MVP: But not just the film itself was groundbreaking, also the fact that it was made by an African-American without the help of Hollywood. This was before the rise of the independent era. The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, until Sweetback was such a financial success. At that juncture, what came from that was not only what they call blaxploitation, but also the independent film. That's all very important. Just as you said, you think of me mostly from that early era. And that's what I really find so touching, because nothing happens outside of a historical context. No film is made without the people behind the lens. Of course, most people, even I, tend to look at films in the most simplistic way, and say, "Wow, so-and-so is in this film." We talk about who's in it, as opposed to who got it made. But there are financial and technical aspects which go along with it, that should be addressed and acknowledged, including those minorities who are doing excellent work as well. MVP: That was why the Black Panthers made it mandatory viewing for all of their members, for its political content. While that's an immense aspect, you have to remember that if I didn't have control of what was going on BEHIND the lens, I could never have gotten what you saw IN FRONT OF the lens. MVP: That was called, "Put a Curse on You!" That curse has actually come to pass. At one time, the general consensus was that only the African community was considered to be plagued by drug problems. People thought, "Well, it's just a problem among those porch monkeys. It couldn't happen in our community." Yeah, right. It has since spread out and become huge all over the country. MVP: Yes, but once again, remember that the hard part was the business and technical side. People really, really, really need to understand that, and believe that it can be done. You can take your own destiny. I want people to say, "Hmmm, I never thought of that. Gee, I guess so." MVP: One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, "What the hell, I can do better than that." MVP: I broke three hours. That day I was 2:57. MVP: I did seven miles this morning. I ran all the way across Manhattan and the 59th Street Bridge. It was pretty steep going and the wind was blowing hard in my face. I thought at least I'll have the wind when I need it on my way back. Don't you know that after I ran around Queens, and got back to the bridge, the wind had shifted and was blowing in my face again. I said, "Man, this racist wind out here." MVP: Oh, yeah, but I don't like New York anymore because I hate all that waiting at the Verrazano Bridge. I just get too cold. MVP: No, you don't want special treatment when you're very serious about it, though I guess for my age-bracket, I'm pretty good. Still, Boston is the one, brother. That's the great one. I also enjoy the Buffalo to Niagara Falls Marathon. And Philly's nice. But if you asked me my favorite, I suppose I'd have to say Boston. MVP: That depends on whether you consider neck bones health food. Personally, I'm into Uncle Ben's and fat. MVP: I was bowled over by it. I thought it was just terrific. And the interesting thing was, it was all true. It brought back some very tense memories there, boy. MVP: Very. I had a three picture deal with Columbia that I lost. And nobody's offered me a job since. MVP: Oh well, what the heck. It doesn't particularly bother me. MVP: Oh, it had a major effect. For a long time, there were assassination attempts and all that good stuff. Okay, if you can't stand the heat in the oven, what are you supposed to do? I mean, I was born and bred in the briar patch. I'm from the Southside of Chicago. So, it was no big deal. [laughs] KW: Isn't it ironic though, as someone who was so targeted by the mainstream and the government as a threat to be embraced by the Establishment? MVP: Hey, look at how we have Martin Luther King Day now, and how did he go? MVP: It's all very classic. I'm not so surprised. They say possession is 9/10ths of the law. I say survival is 10/10ths of the law. And I always felt that one day my contributions would come to the forefront. MVP: It may seem soon to you, but when you're waiting, brother, it doesn't seem all that rapid, if you know what I mean. [laughs heartily, sighs] MVP: No, I really like to talk to people and to get their take on things. This has been very instructive. While we've been talking, you've shared your impressions and I find that fascinating, because you mustn't forget that essentially, I'm, most of all, a writer. So, what makes people tick interests me, and I appreciate your questions. MVP: It's not. It's a revolutionary film. What happened when Sweetback made all that money, the studios were in a very difficult position. They wanted the money, but they didn't like the message. This marked the advent of the caricatures which became known as blaxploitation. Hollywood realized that they were totally unfamiliar with black vernacular, so they had to hire some Black people which meant the beginning of some job opportunities to do the costumes, the sets, etcetera. And now we're slowly beginning to see some of the fruits of that. MVP: Yes, see you in Boston!
Van Peebles in brief
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Born in Chicago on August 21, 1932, Melvin Van Peebles is best known as the incendiary iconoclast who financed, wrote, produced, scored, edited, distributed and starred in "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song" (1971) the politically-progressive picture which single-handedly inspired the rise of the blaxploitation genre. What few folks realize, however, is that moviemaking was only a fraction of this Renaissance man's many talents. 
KW: You had already made 'Watermelon Man" with Columbia Pictures when you made "Sweet Sweetback". So, wasn't making a militant film a risky move for you?