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| Jason Welch interviewing filmmaker, Stanley Nelson, Jr. |
Panthers History
Revisited in New Film
Written By Jason Welch
The Emmy Award winner Stanley Earl Nelson, Jr. An African
American director and producer recently visited Florissant Valley Community
College, giving this campus exclusive rights to show his newly soon to be
released documentary “The Black Panthers, Vanguards of Revolution”.
An emotional but educational documentary that he’s been working on for 8 years and is ready to be released to the public. Stanley had several invitations to show the sneak preview of the film from places such as the History Museum, Channel 9, Webster University and more but chose St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley strategically due to the Ferguson riots and his future plans on producing and directing a documentary on the unrest. During an interview on campus Stanley states that it was very hard raising funds and creating a budget for the documentary due to the controversial content and the concerns of resurfacing emotions of that era. Stanley received anonymous threats not to create and release the film but still proceeded forward with his vision. The film goes in depth on the origins of the Black Panthers organization, the impact they made on the world, the founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale and the attack on the organization from the FBI and J Edgar Hoover in Oakland California.
An emotional but educational documentary that he’s been working on for 8 years and is ready to be released to the public. Stanley had several invitations to show the sneak preview of the film from places such as the History Museum, Channel 9, Webster University and more but chose St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley strategically due to the Ferguson riots and his future plans on producing and directing a documentary on the unrest. During an interview on campus Stanley states that it was very hard raising funds and creating a budget for the documentary due to the controversial content and the concerns of resurfacing emotions of that era. Stanley received anonymous threats not to create and release the film but still proceeded forward with his vision. The film goes in depth on the origins of the Black Panthers organization, the impact they made on the world, the founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale and the attack on the organization from the FBI and J Edgar Hoover in Oakland California.
It exposes the United States Government, local law enforcement along with showing in detail that the Panthers were only created to govern the police and to stand up against capitalism and oppression. Although several laws were broken by the organization, they felt that laws needed to be color blind. Panthers showed their concern for humanity through protest, press conferences, outreach programs for children serving 200,000 meals in 19 different communities a week, giving out books to the youth, starting a Black Panther Newspaper which promoted black pride, equality and the famous cartoon drawing of the pig in a police uniform which quickly became the mascot for all police officers around the world. Panthers recruited key members such as Eldridge Cleaver an African American writer and activist noticed by the New York Times Book Review who became a minister of information and head of the international section of the organization. Black Panthers were not a racist organization, they were a revolution that wanted equality for all people, not just African Americans. The Panthers met with all ethnicities whites, Asian, Chinese etc. giving speeches on how we should all stick together and stand as one. The Panthers trained women on how to protect their children. Woman panthers took charge of office management, answering phones, booking meetings, interviewing new recruits and vice versa. Woman panther held classes for other woman on how to raise children and stand strong, they even took turns cooking breakfast for the youth and kept everything systematic.
Headlining every newspaper and magazine, The Panthers became a nationwide movement. Their sharp image of black pride, afros and leather jackets became iconic. The media would sometimes refer to the Panthers organization as “sexy” making their movement a destination magnet for people of all ages from all over the world. The Panthers opened shelters and clinics for the people who couldn’t afford it. They started schools teaching children about police brutality and how to rise above it. The Panthers plan to eliminate capitalism and oppression made them seem like super heroes and for that, a war was declared on the Panthers. J Edgar Hoover labeled the group as terrorist and law enforcement were given the green light to take down the organization by any means necessary. Phones were tapped, families were harassed and beaten, innocent people were killed, members of the organization were framed and prosecuted leaving some members to turn informant for their freedom. They were infiltrated and became a fully a fully exposed target to the FBI.
The highly anticipated film will be released in September 2015 to theatres in New York. Go to www.theblackpanthers.comwww.theblackpanthers.com for more info on The Panthers Organization and detailed dates on the release.
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