The Film That Made âSweet Sweetbackâs Baadasssss Songâ Possible
Melvin Van Peebles had to go to France to make âThe Story of a Three Day Pass,â the tale of a Black soldier on leave thatâs full of bold directorial choices.
Nicole Berger and Harry Baird in Melvin Van Peebles’s debut feature.Credit.Sigma III Corporation
By Nicolas Rapold
May 6, 2021
I donât think anyone who sees the title âSweet Sweetbackâs Baadasssss Songâ forgets it. The eye-popping film made Melvin Van Peebles a pioneer of 1970s American cinema and pure independent hustle. But a few years earlier, Van Peebles directed his first trailblazer in France: âThe Story of a Three Day Pass,â his feature debut, which was released commercially in 1968 and is opening at Film Forum on Friday in a new restoration.