HOW TO EAT YOUR WATERMELON IN WHITE COMPANY (AND ENJOY IT)
part of Racial Rewind Film Series

August 21@ 7:30pm
August 22@ 7:30pm
August 23@ 7:30pm

FREE FOR EVERYONE!

“My politics is to win,” Van Peebles declares at the beginning of How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), a documentary that explores the life and work of this maverick, modern-day Renaissance man. Whether making guerrilla-style films, flying Air Force sorties over the Pacific (ferrying the atom bomb, no less), studying astronomy in Amsterdam, writing novels in self-taught French, composing music (by means of a self-devised notation system), writing musical stage plays (for which he received nine Tony nominations), recording seminal rap albums or trading options on Wall Street, Van Peebles has blazed his own path, making a mark in each endeavor he’s pursued.

In How to Eat Your Watermelon… the events of Van Peebles’ life are vividly recounted through interviews with colleagues, contemporaries, critics, family and friends. The film also takes advantage of remarkable archival footage culled from all corners of Van Peebles’ diverse life—ranging from rare interviews on French TV to a hilarious series of opinion pieces culled from his brief foray as a financial-news analyst—to paint a sharp portrait of this unique personality. But How to Eat Your Watermelon… doesn’t merely enumerate Melvin Van Peebles’ artistic glories, nor does it plot a static hagiography of accomplishments; by virtue of original cinema vérité footage shot over the past eight years in the U.S. and France, it constructs a gripping narrative of a restless artist in an often unforgiving world, and reveals that Van Peebles, at age 74, is still a vital creative force who shows no signs of slowing down
(mvpmovie.com).

The Racial Rewind Film Series is presented by the Cucalorus Film Foundation and the YWCA Lower Cape Fear and is funded in part by a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. Following each screening filmmakers and guest speakers will lead discussions exploring racial concerns in the context of each film.

All screenings at Jengo's Playhouse
815 Princess Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
Call 910-343-5995 for more info.