
Melvin Van Peebles
Actor · 1932 – 2021 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker. In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which led to the creation of the blaxploitation genre. although critic Roger Ebert did not consider this example of Van Peebles' work to be an exploitation film. He followed this up with the musical, Don't Play Us Cheap, based on his own stage play, and continued to make films, write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades; his final films include the French-language film Le Conte du ventre plein (2000) and the absurdist film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (2008). His son, filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles, appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss!.
Movies24
Movie6.5FantasyActionAfter his father's death, a young boy finds solace in action movies featuring an indestructible cop. Given a magic ticket by a theater manager, he is transported into the film and teams up with the cop to stop a villain who escapes into the real world.
Last Action Hero
1993 · 3.1K votes
Movie4.1AdventureThrillerAfter another deadly shark attack, Ellen Brody decides she has had enough of New England's Amity Island and moves to the Caribbean to join her son, Michael, and his family. But a great white shark has followed her there, hungry for more lives.
Jaws: The Revenge
1987 · 1.2K votes
Movie5.7ComedyRomanceMarcus is a successful advertising executive who woos and beds women almost at will. After a company merger he finds that his new boss, the ravishing Jacqueline, is treating him in exactly the same way. Completely traumatised by this, his work goes badly downhill.
Boomerang
1992 · 651 votes
Movie5.4ActionThrillerA maverick skydiver and a former KGB agent team up to stop the Russian mafia from stealing gold.
Terminal Velocity
1994 · 295 votes
Movie5.5ActionAdventureA group of mostly black infantrymen return from the Spanish-American War with a cache of gold. They travel to the West where their leader searches for the men who lynched his father.
Posse
1993 · 95 votes
Movie4.9DocumentaryChronicles the rise and fall of 1970s New York City nightclub Plato's Retreat.
American Swing
2009 · 19 votes
Movie4.3ActionScience FictionFrom the immensely popular FIST OF THE NORTH STAR comic book series, comes a new hero. The fate of mankind rests with superhuman warrior Kenshiro who roams the wastelands of the future waging a battle against overwhelming evil. With the spiritual guidance of his dead father, Kenshiro fights to free his stolen love from the brutal tyrant Lord Shin. Through his struggle he must confront his destiny.
Fist of the North Star
1995 · 87 votes
Movie5.5ComedyHoping to propose to his upper-crust girlfriend, Wade Walker crashes her family's annual reunion and lands in a face-off with her dad.
Peeples
2013 · 74 votes
Movie5.6ComedyIn order to escape from the mob, an African-American man must disguise himself as a white man.
True Identity
1991 · 33 votes
Movie6.3DramaHistoryIn this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
Panther
1995 · 48 votes
Movie5.5ActionComedyWhen a psychotic Santa tries to destroy Chanukah by hypnotizing Jewish children with bootlegged copies of the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life," it's up to the Hebrew Hammer to save the day. Together with Mohammed, head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, the Hammer takes no prisoners in his quest to hunt down the renegade Santa and make the holiday season safe for all.
The Hebrew Hammer
2003 · 67 votes
Movie5.5CrimeDramaThree converging story lines involving bootleggers, a serial killer and drug dealers are followed. A former drug dealer tries to go straight, but comes across a stash of stolen drugs. Meanwhile, a middle-aged suburban housewife hides a sadistic and vicious streak.
Hard Luck
2006 · 81 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryHistoryExamines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
2011 · 46 votes
Movie4.3ActionThrillerA former U.S. marshal discovers that all of the survivors of his old unit are experiencing the same symptoms simultaneously and there may be a larger conspiracy at hand.
Armed
2018 · 23 votes
- Movie6.9Documentary
The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.
Making 'Do the Right Thing'
1989 · 8 votes
Movie5.1ActionCrimeAfter saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
1971 · 123 votes
Movie6.0ActionDocumentaryWith archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis.
BaadAsssss Cinema
2002 · 26 votes
Movie4.5ComedyO.C. and Stiggs aren't your average unhappy teenagers. They not only despise their suburban surroundings, but they also plot against it. They seek revenge against the upper-middle-class Schwab family, who embody all they detest: excess.
O.C. and Stiggs
1987 · 21 votes
Movie6.3ComedyA racist insurance agent lives in a typical suburban neighborhood, but his bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight.
Watermelon Man
1970 · 62 votes
Movie6.2DocumentaryA look at the extraordinary achievements and contemporary legacy of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneer of the African-American film industry.
Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
2021 · 4 votes
Movie2.3ComedyA rapper finds himself possessed by the soul of a dead fashion designer; frequently switching personalities.
Identity Crisis
1989 · 8 votes
Movie5.2ThrillerActionA black police officer discovers a cell of white supremacist vigilantes within his department.
Gang in Blue
1996 · 13 votes
Movie5.4DramaIn April 1992, following the notorious Rodney King verdict, the streets of Los Angeles became a battlefield, the backdrop to four personal intertwined stories.
Riot
1997 · 12 votes
Movie5.6DramaBLACKOUT takes you inside the personal journey of what went down and what it was really like in Brooklyn, NY on August 14. It examines the nature of man to take advantage of his own fellow man outside of normal conditions, in times of weakness and vulnerability
Blackout
2007 · 9 votes
Series12
TV8.1MysteryDramaAn American police procedural chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit.
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993 · 149 votes
TV7.3DramaComedyA friend group of black women face life's tests and triumphs together. From dating to divorce, and friends to family to relationships, Joan, Maya, Lynn and Toni support each other despite their differing backgrounds.
Girlfriends
2000 · 48 votes
TV8.1ComedyLiving Single is an American television sitcom that aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in a Brooklyn brownstone. Throughout its run, Living Single became one of the most popular African-American sitcoms of its era, ranking among the top five in African-American ratings in all five seasons. The series was produced by Yvette Lee Bowser's company, Sister Lee, in association with Warner Bros. Television. In contrast to the popularity of NBC's "Must See TV" on Thursday nights in the 1990s, many African American and Latino viewers flocked to Fox's Thursday night line-up of Martin, Living Single, and New York Undercover. In fact, these were the three highest-rated series among black households for the 1996–1997 season.
Living Single
1993 · 55 votes
TV6.9ComedyThe family life, romantic life, and career of Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book editor. The show distinctively interjected clips from older black and white television series to punctuate Tupper's feelings or thoughts.
Dream On
1990 · 47 votes
TV3.0DocumentaryThe epic story of the actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen. From blackface to Black Panther, this series is a definitive chronicle of more than a century of the black experience in Hollywood and a powerful reexamination of a quintessentially American story – in brilliant color.
Hollywood Black
2024 · 4 votes
TV6.3Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaA new caretaker moves with his family into the mysterious Overlook Hotel for the winter.
The Shining
1997 · 356 votes
TV8.8DramaLong-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · 8 votes
TVDocumentaryPour le plaisir
1964
- TV7.0Documentary
Sex: The Revolution was a four-part 2008 American documentary miniseries that aired on VH1 and The Sundance Channel. It chronicled the rise of American interest in sexuality from the 1950s through the 1990s. The version shown on VH1 was pixelated to censor nudity including in discussions of censorship of nudity. VH1 Latin America aired the uncensored version.
Sex: The Revolution
2008 · 2 votes
TV5.5Sonny Spoon is a detective program aired in the United States on the NBC television network in 1988. The series was created by Michael Daly, Dinah Prince, Stephen J. Cannell and Randall Wallace and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions.
Sonny Spoon
1988 · 2 votes
TV8.5DramaMysteryThe 25-year reunion of members of a black athletic-social club brings together nine of its members for the first time to honor their old coach but is marred by a murder investigation involving one of the gents.
The Sophisticated Gents
1981 · 2 votes
TVDocumentary