I have a new film coming out called
Da 5 Bloods.
It’s about our brothers who fought in the Vietnam War.
There have been Vietnam War films
that have African Americans in them.
But this is one where we’re really dealing with
the experience of African American soldiers
in Vietnam.
One thing about Spike,
he's a serious posterphile.
You know, when you go to 40 Acres,
he’s got like a gazillion one-off super rare posters.
So the posters for his films,
he’s serious about them.
For this project we showed him
all the classic Vietnam posters.
And he kept saying,
“That’s not Vietnam. That’s not Vietnam.”
It was one thing that he said that
triggered everything
and that was, “You’re not giving me
the black experience in Vietnam.”
And then I realized there was no
black experience Vietnam poster
because there really hadn’t been
a black experience Vietnam film.
So then I was like okay, who was
doing work back then that represented
the black experience?
And then I remember seeing Emory Douglas’ work.
Emory Douglas contributed to the first issue
of the Black Panther newspaper
when he was only 21 years old.
When you think about that,
at that young age, he was helping shape
the political, cultural views
of everyone who read this paper.
One of his pieces was of this soldier crying
and within his helmet were all these images of
what was going on back home.
And that’s when the lightbulb went off.
It would be amazing if we could get
Emory Douglas to help us out
with this poster.
So I sent it to Spike.
And I said, “You know what?
We’ve got to find Emory!
I don’t know where he is,
but we’ve got to find him!”
I’m just sitting right here on the street.
Please bless me,
bless us with how did you
become the hookup with the Black Panthers?
People who were trying to bring Sister Betty Shabazz
to the area, to honor her,
they wanted me to come and do
the poster for that event.
When I went to the meeting,
they said that there was some
brothers coming over who may do security.
Uh-oh.
So when they came over to the next meeting,
it was Huey, Bobby Seale,
and I think Lil’ Bobby Hutton.
After that meeting, I knew that’s
what I wanted to do
so I asked them how could I join.
This is before they had
headquarters, notoriety.
None of that.
Huey said, “We’re going to start
the paper and we want you
to be the Revolutionary Artist.
But eventually you will become
the Minister of Culture, he had a whole vision
and then be able to tell our story
from our respective.
Minister of Culture!
Still today.
What began as a four-page
call to action grew into an international
readership of almost 500,000.
We used to go to the printer
to make sure everything was there.
Stuff was missing from time to time.
They were letting the FBI come in
and read the paper before it was
being printed.
-Hoover! -Yes.
J. Edgar!
-Shenanigans. -Yes.
-Skulduggery. -Yes.
-Subterfuge. -Absolutely. Yes.
‘Cause the paper was powerful too.
I know.
If it wasn’t powerful, they wouldn’t be doing that.
Yes.
Literally he was creating black artistic identity
and iconography that you can still
see like right now.
We knew they weren’t going to read
the long drawn out articles, so
we had pictures with captions
and headlines under photographs
so they could get the gist of the story.
The paper spoke a language
that they could understand.
When you do work like that
and it hits the masses it’s basically what
any designer could ever ask for.
But the people that it represents
are the ones who really benefit from it.
For people it’s like yes, you’re saying what
I wanted to say but didn’t really
know how to say it
and you’re expressing it visually.
And you know, forget about
the social media of today.
We’re talking about ink on a newspaper
you know, delivered directly
into the hands of the people.
We reworked
the image from this.
We have Chadwick Boseman and four Bloods.
The Bloods are Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters,
Norman Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock.
Right now, they kind of get lost.
Can we put the four of them
in the helmet too?
Yeah. We can mix them. Blow them up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
‘Cause it’s about them…
-in that context. -Yeah.
September 29… 1969.
I mean, America was in turmoil.
Kent State,
Jackson State,
you’ve got a war in Vietnam,
you’ve got a war at home.
It was really important that the poster
was able to really capture the conflict
that was happening in the country at that time.
There was duality to this black soldier experience.
You my opposer when I want equality
and you want me to go somewhere and fight
but you won’t even stand up for me here at home.
As we all know, African American soldiers
called themselves Bloods.
One of my favorite scenes in the film
is when the Bloods find out that
Dr. King had been assassinated.
The story never really got out but
them black soldiers were ready to go off.
That same frustration was everywhere.
It was pretty intense.
I mean, there was a lot of battles that went on.
Young people being murdered and being justified.
There was high levels of frustration.
So when the Panthers came on the scene in Sacramento
we had people call in saying,
“We wanna join the Panthers.”
What happened in Sacramento?
They had got this right-wing assemblyman
to change the local gun ordinances
because the Panthers were patrolling the community.
They didn’t like no black folks
walking around with guns.
They wanted to change that.
I went there to observe the legislation.
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense
calls upon the American people to take careful note
of the racist California legislation aimed at keeping
the black people disarmed and powerless
at the very same time racist police agencies
throughout the country are intensifying the terror,
brutality, murder, and repression of black people.
We entered the chambers, the first thing they say is
“Get the guns out of here.”
And this white policeman come down on his motorcycle
and he see all these black people with these guns.
Next thing you got them coming down on us
from everywhere.
I did about four weeks in jail.
Lil’ Bobby Hutton I think did about three months
because he was a juvenile.
You get more time as a juvenile
than if you was an adult.
What?
If you could imagine working for the Black Panther Press,
you were naturally high up on the FBI’s list,
not to mention the police.
So you’re constantly facing
dangerous situations and incarceration.
That’s what Emory was doing.
He was making these iconic pieces
that was actually putting his life in danger.
We’re in West Oakland de Fremery Park,
known as Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park.
He was the first Panther
murdered by the Oakland Police.
How old was he when he got murdered?
He was seventeen years old.
Seventeen, huh?
We were coming to set up for a picnic.
They firebombed the house. Gassed it.
We got out to the car
and they pushed him and shoved him.
And that’s when they opened up and shot him
over 19 times.
Marlon Brando, he spoke at the funeral.
Said it could’ve been his son.
Brando, you saw him?
Yeah, yeah he stayed with us for a week or two.
I haven’t suffered the way you’ve suffered.
I’m just beginning to learn
the nature of that experience.
And somehow that has to be translated
to the white community now.
Time’s running out for everybody.
The police, they’re in our community not to
promote our welfare or for our safety,
but they’re there to contain us and murder us.
When the Vietnam veterans
came back and began to join the Black Panther Party
they had the skills and abilities.
So they were given the green light to
develop and help train young people
and organizations for self defense.
The whole black nation
has to be put together as a black army.
We come for what’s ours.
Your work has stood the test of time.
I always talk about it in the context of
it was bigger than myself.
Not a me art but a we art.
It was a reflection of the politics.
All the things we were about.
Please.
Yes sir?
Sign this for me.
To Brother Spike Lee, the keeper of our history.
Peace and respect, Emory Douglas.
One of the great things about Spike
is he will always push you.
And I really think that him pushing us led us to Emory.
Wanting to be true, wanting to be authentic to that time
brought on this sort of historic stage
of him and Emory, two artists, meeting each other.
I don’t think it could’ve happened any other way.
Now looking to where we are today, 2020,
where are we as a people?
We’ve been divided and conquered in many ways.
Today they would call us terorrists
as opposed to freedom fighters,
as much as there may be some progress made.
Are you hopeful?
I’m always hopeful.
I’m hopeful, yes.
It may not happen overnight.
It may not happen in my lifetime.
But you know, it’s gonna happen.