With the internet, the modern world has become a Tardis of sorts. The internet is a vast resource full of knowledge and communication stuffing every digital nook and cranny, expanding our experience far beyond the capacity for any one lifetime. At the same time, the world has visibly shrunk so we can communicate with people around the world to see how everybody else’s experiences differ from our own.
The Black Power Mixtapes 1967-1975 is a Swedish compilation of footage of the Black Power Movement in the United States as documented by Swedish filmmakers with added commentary from a modern Black American perspective. The disclaimer at the beginning of the film comments that this doesn’t attempt to portray every aspect of the movement, but merely to gather how the Swedish journalists experienced and interpreted the movement. However partial the content is, The Black Power Mixtapes is a deep dive into some amazing archival footage of an American movement while commenting on how that movement reflects the movements of today’s generation.
Goran Hugo Olsson discovered the footage in the basement of a Stockholm TV station, ranging from a European tour by Stokley Carmichael to footage of political prisoner Angela Davis from her cell. Footage of Martin Luther King, Jr. makes appearances. The outsider-ness of the footage, captured mainly by lily white non-Americans, gives an opportunity to reflect on how our actions and statements can be perceived by a sympathetic but far removed outsider. With the inclusion of commentary from modern black artists (?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Melvin Van Peebles), the Mixtapes become a reflection of a reflection commenting on how people see their history, and how that dovetails with how others saw their history.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-75 isn’t a beginner level crash course in the 1960s activist movement. Heck, just by the dates alone, it’s missing a huge chunk of history that predated the footage. It operates more as a footnote to history, fleshing out a movement from rote U.S. History Book basics. But, as far as footnotes go, this is a helluva good one.
