Black Power Mixtape - Journal Entry 10 Xiongyue Yu

The Black Power Mixtape

 

The film's source material is largely derived from old 16mm film used by Swedish journalists in the 1960s and 1970s to capture scenes of urban unrest and revolution in the United States. It wasn't until thirty years later that these fragmentary video clips were discovered in the basement of Swedish television. The images were pieced together as if they were the most raw and unfiltered historical footage, edited and produced by contemporary Swedish filmmakers, and finally presented to the audience, and to give every viewer a realistic impression of that movement and the struggles of that era.

 

A documentary made up of real historical footage, a rap album featuring collaborations of the best contemporary rap musicians, a unique perspective brought to life through compelling footage and thought-provoking interviews.

 

It is also the brave, unofficial and impressionistic history of the black power movement that America once tried to suppress - an unofficial history that can only be told by outsiders. And this film represents exactly what Europeans see as outsiders to American policy and history, and their attitudes and perspectives, which they see as a humanist perspective.

 

Whether or not this view is comprehensive or profound enough to focus only on the perspective of the price of black activism. The world has circulated a different narrative about that time, that race, both officially and folklore. Then this documentary is as solid a proof as any, and when the viewer sees the graphic recordings in the film and hears their stories told by those who actually experienced them, it is impossible not to believe that they were real. Those black children singing songs about guns and revolution, forced to be indoctrinated with the necessary lessons that promote violence, black workers being fired without cause, families with only extremely small living spaces ... Viewers will thus see that the entire political party in this country remains strongly opposed to any kind of social program for the disadvantaged because it has no place in capitalist culture.

 

Although, as a documentary, it contains some episodes that seem to stray from the concept of the Black Power Movement, it is still too long. But overall, it is still a documentary that represents a different perspective and is important to understanding the history of black rights.