A pulsing soul-power soundtrack, extensive and rare archive footage and fiercely honest contemporary interviews drive Stanley Nelson’s blistering account of the rise and fall of the Black Panther party. Paying as much attention to its grassroots work (free breakfasts for schoolchildren was a cornerstone) as its more celebrated public image, Stanley counters “the cold, oversimplified narrative of a Panther who is prone to violence and consumed with anger”. Former members recall disciplined responses to police brutality, while the forging of links with other dispossessed communities (eye-opening footage of “hillbillies” declaring common cause with the Panthers) demonstrates wider goals. No wonder Nixon and Hoover spent so much time fearing, infiltrating and undermining them.
