The Maysles Institute kicked off its Black Panther Film Festival from December 8 - 13th, with a series of documentaries detailing the history of some of the most prolific civil rights activists known in history, the Black Panther Party.
Including a documentary based on Asian American Panther Richard Aoki, an original member of the Black Panthers who was eventually selected as their ‘Field Marshall’, produced by Filmmakers Mike Cheng and Ben Wang.
Huey Newton, Bobby Seale both have since stated, that Aoki played an intricate part in the development and founding of the Black Panther Party on October 15, 1966.
Although he played a major role in the development of the Panthers, according to Aoki, the political organization decided to conceal his appointment with the Panthers from the masses, in order to secure his safety, and Aoki was one of their main weapons suppliers in the beginning, which is also mentioned in the film.
Producers Mike Cheng and Ben Wang met as undergraduate students at UC Davis while taking Asian American Studies classes and working together in Third World Forum, a campus-based group that has organized student support for leftist, anti-imperial and anti-colonial political movements since the 1970’s.
The film also covered Aoki's forced three-year stay in an internment camp in Utah during World War II as a child, his eight-year stint in the US Army, growing up in a predominately black neighborhood, where he originally meets Black Panther leader Huey P Newton, and attending Merritt College, where he becomes better acquainted with Huey and Bobby Seale.
The film showcase also included highlighted documentaries such as: ‘Mumia Abu-Jamal-Justice on Trial’ produced by Iranian-born Kouross Esmaili, a documentary demonstrating the major violations in the Abu-Jamal case -- judicial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, racial discrimination in jury selection, police corruption and tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction.
‘Cointelpro 101’, a documentary detailing the operations of a formal program of the FBI and government agencies—local, state, and federal, determined to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous struggles, as well as mount an institutionalized attack against allies of these movements and other progressive organizations.
Maysles Institute’s Black Panther Film Festival series also included documentaries on former Black Panthers Fred Hampton 'To Live and Die for the Struggle', ‘Black Revolutionary - George Jackson’ and Eldridge Cleaver - 'Black Panther' detailing Cleaver’s exile in Algeria.
There were celebrity panels featuring, moderators such as world renowned journalist Herb Boyd of the Amsterdam News, Aoki documentary Co-Producers, Mike Cheng and Ben Wang, Churchill Ward, Johanna Fernandez and Pam Africaa. Professor at Columbia University, former Black Panther, Jamal Joseph also spoke on the Clever and Aoki panel.
One of the biggest highlights of the festival was the appearance of world-famous Revolutionary Artist of the Black Panther Party who subsequently became their Minister of Culture, created the overall design of the Black Panther, the Party’s weekly newspaper, and oversaw its layout and production until the Black Panthers disbanded in 1979–80, Emery Douglas.
Mr. Douglas, who has been celebrated worldwide for his extraordinary artwork, spoke on the Q & A panel after the Clever and Aoki films Friday, December, 10th. In addition, he provided the main artwork for the Black Panther Film Festival, as well as pieces of his artwork for sale during the festival. He also took time out to autograph the purchased images for the attendees. Mr. Douglas appears in the documentary ‘Eldridge Cleaver - Black Panther’.
Brooklyn based artist, Sophia Dawson also appeared at the film festival and exhibited her paintings of the Black Panthers, including a beautiful piece she created of Bobby Seale.
Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, Co-Chair of the FREE THE LAND! Free all Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Malcolm X Commemoration Committee also appeared at the event.
The Maysles Black Panther Film Festival was a stunning and educational look back into the history of the original Black Panther party. It provided the historical facts, and film footage that contained some of the missing links that are needed in today’s society to help educate and inform our uniformed communities of the inner workings of this powerful revolutionary group and all their efforts to uplift black people and people of color. They also reassured that these groups of courageous individuals were not afraid to stand up for equal justice and rights for all people of color.
Please click on link for more B&W photo coverage:
http://sopiphotography.com/2010/12/16/the-black-panthers-continue-to-educate-the-masses/
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