Press Kit
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“Critics’ Pick. Stanley Nelson’s excellent new documentary…like any good work of history, sticks close to the facts, plotting complex events into a packed, fast-moving timeline… The film captures the drama of their rise and fall without sacrificing the nuances… The bulk of the testimony –rousing, rueful, funny and frank – comes from within the Black Panther rank and file… Mr. Nelson makes a strong case for their importance as both a political and cultural force… Sober yet electrifying.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"MAGNIFICENT! A coherent picture of the messiest, most contentious radical group" -Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“The Black Panthers roar again in a vital new documentary.” – Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
“The release of THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF A REVOLUTION is well timed. Next year will mark half a century since Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panthers, in Oakland, California… The period is revived by a wealth of songs on the soundtrack, and by the sleek and succulent Panther look. The black beret, the leather jacket, the bountiful hair: has any demeanor made such an impact, so fast? Photographers came flocking, and (Nelson) is at liberty to feast on the images, both still and moving, that ensued.” – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
"Thorough and thought provoking!" -Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times
"Compelling and incisive. The most shocking aspect of Nelson's film is how painfully relevant its message still is." -Nikki Baughan, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
"ABSORBING! PROVOCATIVE! A compelling portrait of a troubling time." -Noel Murray, A.V. Club
"The film continues a discussion whose present-day relevance is painfully, increasingly obvious. Adding a bounty of excellent archival photographs and some good politics soul on the soundtrack." -John DeForce, The Hollywood Reporter
"Excellent. Exceptional! The women's voices are as vital and important as those of their male counterparts, something not often seen in documentaries about times of social change." -Kelly L. Carter, Buzzfeed
"The film is equal parts exhaustive chronicle of the Panther's peak era and a loving paean to the culture of the late '60s and early '70s, when social change was a big part of the zeitgeist." -Martin Johnson, The Root
“It’s the kind of documentary that’s easy to view as distant history, except that so many of the issues the Panthers took up (police brutality, systemic poverty, healthcare, feeding children) are, sadly, not history at all.” – Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
“Remarkable!” – Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
“The film demystifies an organization that paid a steep price for cultivating an aura of dangerous glamour.Among the surprising facts revealed is that a majority of the Black Panther rank-and-file were women. The organization ran community outreach programs in its home base of Oakland, Calif., one of which served breakfast daily to thousands of poor black schoolchildren… The movie implies that until (J. Edgar) Hoover carried out his campaign to destroy them, much of their rhetoric was theatrical bravado.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“The film outlines the Black Panther Party’s history from its founding in Oakland, Calif., and its early 1960s heyday through its decline and eventual disintegration in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. There are portraits of celebrated leaders, like Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, and copious evidence of the F.B.I.’s covert campaign to destroy the group, but much of the film’s interest and emotional impact comes from remembrances of lesser-known Panther alumni – call them survivors – like Jamal Joseph and Wayne Pharr.” – Mike Hale, The New York Times
"Impressively comprehensive...fascinating and enraging." -The Stranger, Seattle
"Stunning...Stanley Nelson’s best work to date." - Indiewire
