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Melvin Van Peebles on Taking Control of Black Representation

The African American film director is best known for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which added a political dimension to the black action movie genre. Van Peebles says that, unlike his own work, the blaxploitation films that came later were apologies for systems of oppression, not critiques of them. Prior to his career in film, he lived in France as a writer. His new book, coauthored by his son Mario, is called No Identity Crisis.

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Other segments from the episode on July 17, 1990

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 17, 1990: Interview with Oliver Stone; Interview with Melvin van Peebles; Review of the novels "Coyote Waits" by Tony Hillerman and "Blossom" by Andrew Vachss.
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24:58

Film Director Oliver Stone

Part I of the Fresh Air interview. Stone's newest movie, about the rock band the Doors, will soon be in theaters. The director is a Vietnam War veteran who earned a Purple Heart; his was experiences informed his early movie, Platoon.

Interview
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03:56

Two New Mysteries Work Best When Rooted in Place

John Leonard reviews "Coyote Waits" by Tony Hillerman and "Blossom" by Andrew Vachss. The book critic says Hillerman's novel succeeds with its strong focus on the American Southwest. Vachss, on the other hand, shouldn't have had his protagonist Burke leave New York.

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06:43

In 'Killer of Sheep,' an L.A. Portrait Like No Other

Critic-at-large John Powers reflects on what he thinks is the single greatest movie ever made about the city of Los Angeles — Killer of Sheep, an independent film made in the late '70s by Charles Burnett. It's on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry; it will be showing in selected theaters in the next few months, and it comes out on DVD this September.

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