All Power to the People

In the wake of the Rodney King riots, filmmaker Lee Lew Lee felt the need to look back at what had happened to the political struggles of the sixties and seventies. The resulting documentary examines the historical context of the civil rights movement and the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966. Founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton’s powerful Ten-Point Platform called for improved housing, employment, and education for blacks, and an end to police occupation of their communities. The Panthers’ outspoken analysis of institutional racism and their armed monitoring of the police in their neighborhoods quickly drew national attention—including that of the media and the government. Fast-paced and overflowing with interviews and archival footage, alternately inspiring and disturbing, All Power to the People! connects the Black Panther Party to the American Indian Movement and other radical movements of the time and examines the government’s repressive role in their demise.—Kathy Geritz • (115 mins, Color/B&W, Video, From Filmmakers Library) Followed by: Still Revolutionaries (Sienna McLean, U.S., 2000). Two women talk about their experiences in the Black Panther Party. (16 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist) • (Total running time: c. 150 mins)