Power to the Peebles

Early in "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)", director Joe Angio's documentary of Melvin Van Peebles, one of the interviewees remarks, "In many ways, Melvin was an enigma." If that was the sentiment on which Mr. Angio based his portrait of the artist then he succeeded with flying colors. "Watermelon" manages to be at once a thorough recounting of the startlingly full life of the man who is credited with fathering the blaxploitation genre, while at the same time shedding no light on who he was behind the scenes.

The life of Mr. Van Peebles, a notorious and notoriously outspoken artist and womanizer is certainly deserving of a documentary. Before he had written a word of his 1971 watershed film, "Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song", he had already directed several shorts and moved to Holland before relocating to France, learning French and becoming a writer for an underground anarchist magazine. It seems Mr. Van Peebles, who never met an art form he couldn't dabble in, had heard of a loophole that allowed any "French writer" to obtain a temporary directing card. This newfound ability afforded him the chance to make his first film, "The Story of a Three-Day Pass", which got him noticed by Hollywood.

But the rest of his story is no "happily ever after" ending. As his son Mario Van Peebles, whose 2004 film Baadasssss!" was an equally fitting tribute to the man, says: "After 'Sweetback'… he got no offers." But Mr. Van Peebles was by no means finished. Already a filmmaker and recording artist, he went on to produce more films, books and stage musicals before spending a brief stint on the American Stock Exchange (I'll let the film explain that one).

As you can probably tell, there is plenty of life-story to fill a Melvin Van Peebles documentary. But nothing in "Watermelon" goes deeper than what you could learn from a cursory Google search. While much fun is poked at his womanizing, few if any of his past dalliances appear in the film. His progeny are given screentime but no mention is made of the maternal side of the family. Mr. Van Peebles in the end remains an enigma but an endlessly interesting one. He told his son Mario that life comes in four stages: "who's Mario; get me Mario; get me a young Mario; and who's Mario." Mr Van Peebles may not be as young as he used to be, but no one is likely to say "who's Melvin" any time soon.