Exclusive Trailer: 'Vanguard of the Revolution' Might Be Definitive Black Panther Party Doc
Back in the late 1960s a group of African American revolutionaries in Oakland, California, decided to reject Martin Luther King Jr.’s policy of nonviolence in search of a new way to empower poverty-stricken black communities — where citizens were regularly harassed by the police. Emerging in tandem with the Black Power moment, the Black Panther Party flipped the script, going out on patrol to keep tabs on the cops, some reciting the penal code in defense of their own right to bear arms.
As seen in the exclusive trailer above, the new documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution takes a deep dive into the group’s rise, its leaders, and the subversive and violent tactics the FBI employed against the Panthers.
Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson, the film is the first feature-length doc to examine the Black Panther Party. Set to ‘70s tunes, Vanguard of the Revolution features rare archival footage and the key players who witnessed the group’s rise and fall. It opens in select theaters on Sept. 2.
