Institute History
Description
Rated X by an all-white jury screamed the tag line when Sweetback was released. Unlike anything in American cinema before or since, the film tells the story of a streetwise black stud who escapes from two cops by bludgeoning them with handcuffs. Forced to run for his life, Sweetback uses his extraordinary sexual abilities to slip and slide his way through the urban jungle.
The film was the first to recreate the Language and landscape of the ghetto, and, if its glorification of pimp as hero and woman as whore offended many middle-class blacks and whites, there were tens of thousands of people who responded to its energy and its affirmation of the individual within the community. Sweetback became one of the most financially successful independent films ever released in the United States. Its challenge to the corrupt white establishment echoed revolutionary voices of the late 19605 and its concluding message, "A ' baadassss nigger is coming back to collect some dues," seemed to reflect the feelings of many disenfranchised Americans.
Sunday, January 21,10:15 p.m.
Holiday Village Cinema I
Wednesday. January 24, 10:00 p.m.
Prospector Square Theatre
$5.00