This eye-opening film delves into a rich era in a way far removed from the all-too typical Time/Life greatest hits of the '60s approach. Based on newly rediscovered 16mm films made by Swedish journalists, the film provides surprising glimpses at an array of black activists such as Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, and some wonderful scenes of everyday urban life. Carmichael emerges as a smooth Sam Cooke-like figure who was unfairly maligned as a fire-breathing radical. Contemporary names like singer Erykah Badu and scholar Robin Kelley lend some insight about the legacy and lessons of the time. The sum total is nothing less than a secret history of the U.S., one in which a media existed that was not tightly controlled by our government. For essentially a film made 36-44 years ago, Black Power Mixtape feels fresh and new and altogether essential. (PS)
http://blackpowermixtape.com/