ten years old as the "rape of a child by a 40-year-old prostitute". Bennett described instances when Sweetback saved himself through the use of his sexual prowess as "emancipation orgasms" and stated that "it is necessary to say frankly that nobody ever fucked his way to freedom. And it is mischievous and reactionary finally for anyone to suggest to black people in 1971 that they are going to be able to screw their way across the Red Sea. Fucking will not set you free. If fucking freed, black people would have celebrated the millennium 400 years ago." Black nationalist poet and author Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) agreed with Bennett's assessment of the film, stating that it was "a limited, money-making, auto-biographical fantasy of the odyssey of one Melvin Van Peebles through what he considered to be the Black community." Legacy Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is considered to be an important film in the history of African-American cinema. The film was credited by Variety as leading to the creation of the blaxploitation genre, largely consisting of exploitation films made by white directors. As Spike Lee states, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song gave us all the answers we needed. This was an example of how to make a film (a real movie), distribute it yourself, and most important, get paid. Without Sweetback who knows if there could have been a [...] She's Gotta Have It, Hollywood Shuffle, or House Party?" Robert Reid-Pharr wrote that "...[Sweetback] was seen (correctly I believe) as the first in a long line of so-called Blaxploitation features..." and goes on to say that Van Peebles was "one of the first artists to bring not only compelling but realistic images of Black Americans into mainstream cinemas, breaking with decades-long traditions ..." In 2004, Mario Van Peebles directed and starred as his father in Baadasssss!, a biopic about the making of Sweet Sweetback. The film was a critical but not commercial success. In a 2019 reference book published by the Museum of Modern Art to commemorate key works of art in its collection, Anne Morra, Associate Curator of the department of film, says Sweetback's importance goes beyond the history of filmmaking and that its impact on "social consciousness, culture, and political discourse remains indisputable". See also List of American films of 1971 Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song References Notes Further reading External links Melvin Van Peebles's oral history video