Baadasssss!

Autographed!
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

The department hosted the legendary Melvin Van Peebles tonight. The man, I can truly say without any hyperbole, is one of the greatest individuals in the history of mankind. A true renaissance man.

His bio just can't even begin to touch on some of the fascinating tales (some of which he brought out tonight).

I mean, he self taught himself how to make movies, moved off to Mexico, moved back to San Francisco where he worked on the city's trolley's wrote a book with photos about his experience. That caused him to move to Holland and work on a PhD in Celestial Mechanics. While there, his shorts got some attention in France so he moved there. Wrote a few books, made a few films. Moved back to States and completely revolutionized the American film industry with 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'. Then moved to New York and became a trader on Wall Street, wrote some Tony award winning plays, wrote some more books, collaborate with some rappers... etc...
completely CRAZY.

But he is a complete original. No bullshit, no pretense just genuine curiosity and passion.

He treated us with an unfinished cut of his new film, literally straight from the editing room. As usual, it had some moments of complete genius.

I played lame fan and got my DVD signed.

Definitely a night to remember.