The Black Power Mixtape (1967-1975) By Göran Hugo Olsson

In light of the recent electoral results, which saw a robust rise of the far right, to witness Sweden’s critical and open-minded outlook on racial segregation in the USA delivers a sad insight into the workings of western tolerance. That said the material archived in the Swedish national television vaults is impressive and skilfully edited by Göran Hugo Olsson. Devoid of any didactic or exhaustive pretence, the documentary offers a transversal view on one of the most inspiring revolutionary movements of the 20th century.

Short-lived and savagely repressed, the Black Power movement looms on the American consciousness especially today when the Obamania is fading to reveal itself as a colossal swindle. The Black Panthers were the first and last social movement to implement a welfare system that America can keep dreaming about, made of free breakfast, free medical care and prisoners’ assistance; visionary if fragile. When asked whether he feared the prospect of ending up in jail upon his return from Europe, Stokely Carmichael replies: “I was born in prison.”

By Celluloid Liberation Front