All Power to The People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond 1996
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th St., New York, NY 10016; 212-808-4980
Produced by Lee Lew Lee
Director n/a
VHS, color, 115 min.
Adult
African American Studies
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Eric Acree, Library Instruction Coordinator, Oscar A. Silverman Undergraduate Library, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New YorkAll Power to The People is an outstanding documentary on the formation of the Black Panther Party (BPP). This video provides an excellent backdrop to the civil and human right struggles that African Americans were fighting in the 1960's. There is rare footage with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver, and Eldridge Cleaver, all key figures of that time period. In addition, there are interviews with Bobby Seale, one of the founders of the BPP, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, CIA officer Philip Agee, and FBI agents Wes Swearingen and Bill Turner.
Through all of these, interviews and footage director Lee Lew Lee is able to present the BPP as a group that added to the political framework of American society. For example, the BPP spoke and reacted to the needs of the poverty in many African American communities. They were able to go into selected poor African American communities in cities like Oakland, Chicago and New York, and lend assistance. They were also able form partnerships with the American Indian Movement, and gang members in cities like Chicago. Lee also presents some solid evidence on why the BPP fell apart. In part, it was due to internal fighting among members, and infiltration by paid government agents.
This video is highly recommended for middle school through adult audiences.