Black Panther films, lectures

02 April 2003

Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver, in a still from the film Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther, which will screen at PFA on April 15.

A series of historical and contemporary films on the Black Panther movement is on view this month at Pacific Film Archive, illuminated by lectures by Associate Professor of African American Studies Ula Taylor and Kathleen Cleaver, former communications secretary of the Black Panther Party.

The film series, “Beyond Black and White: Films on the Black Panthers,” began this week and continues for the following two Tuesdays. The April 8 program, at 7 p.m., includes one of the first films on the party, Black Panther (aka Off the Pig), featuring interviews with Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. That film is followed by a hard-hitting 1971 documentary, The Murder of Fred Hampton, introduced by Michael Gray, one of the filmmakers.

The series continues the following Tuesday, April 15, at 7 p.m., with the 1969 documentary Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther, as well as a short from the same year, Mayday!, documenting a “Free Huey” rally, and a video titled American Exile. The latter is a 2001 documentary by a pair of Berkeley journalism students, focusing on a former Panther leader, Pete O’Neal, who has lived in exile in Africa for three decades. Kathleen Cleaver, now a senior lecturer at Emory University’s law program, will introduce the screening.

On Sunday, April 13, at 3 p.m., Cleaver will also present an illustrated lecture on the period. A discussion with photographer Pirkle Jones and chair of African American Studies Percy Hintzen follows.

At 12:15 p.m., Thursday, May 1, Professor Taylor will offer personal insights into the Panther photo exhibit, with an emphasis on the experience of women in black revolutionary movements. Her talk will be held in the Theater Gallery, inside the Durant Avenue entrance to the museum.