“If a picture is worth a thousand words, what was a movie worth?
We want to be the success we see, thus we need to see ourselves being free.
True liberation did not mean imitating the colonizer’s mentality.
Melvin Van Peebles.Alex Gotfryd/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
It meant appreciating the power, beauty, and interconnectivity of all people.”
in literature from Ohio Wesleyan University before joining the Air Force and serving for nearly four years.
In 1965, Van Peebles became the editor-in-chief of a short-lived French edition ofMadmagazine.
He also began writing plays in French and even released a debut album,Brer Soul.
Later he would transform it into the musical 1972 filmDon’t Play Us Cheap, which he also directed.
He continued to write, act, direct, and more throughout his career.
