Melvin Van Peebles was a filmmaker, novelist, playwright and composer whose career included work in France and the United States. His films ranged from the interracial romance The Story of a Three Day Pass to the studio comedy Watermelon Man and the independently produced Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. He often held several creative roles on a project, including writing its script and music. He also wrote novels and developed stage works.
Van Peebles grew up in Chicago and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1953 with a degree in English. He then served as a navigator and bombardier in the U.S. Air Force. After military service, he worked in San Francisco, where he made early short films, including Sunlight and Three Pickup Men for Herrick in 1957. He subsequently lived in the Netherlands and France. In Paris, he worked as a journalist and wrote fiction in French, developing a route into feature filmmaking through his published work.
He adapted his novel La Permission into The Story of a Three Day Pass, completed in 1967 and released in the United States in 1968. The film follows a Black American soldier on leave in France and his relationship with a white French woman. His next feature, Watermelon Man, was released in 1970. Starring Godfrey Cambridge, it used the story of a white insurance salesman who becomes Black to examine racism. Van Peebles directed the film for Columbia before returning to independent production.
For Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song in 1971, Van Peebles worked as producer, director, writer, editor, composer and lead actor. The film follows a fugitive after violent encounters with police. Its score was performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, and Van Peebles promoted the release through Black radio. His theater work developed during the same period. Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death opened on Broadway in 1971, followed by Don’t Play Us Cheap in 1972. He also made a film version of the latter musical.
He later directed Identity Crisis, wrote and produced Panther, and wrote and directed the French-language film Bellyful. His recordings included Brer Soul and Ghetto Gothic. He worked on film and television projects with his son, Mario Van Peebles. Mario later directed and starred in Baadasssss!, a dramatization of the making of Sweetback. Melvin Van Peebles died in September 2021 at age 89. Ohio Wesleyan’s symposium series brings scholars and artists together to study his work.
