‘Godfather of modern Black cinema’ Melvin Van Peebles dies at 89

With ‘Sweet Sweetback,’ a low-budget film about a sex show performer who ends up killing two racist cops who were beating a Black Panther activist, Melvin Van Peebles ushered in an era of ‘Blaxploitation’ films and was an inspiration to a new generation of filmmakers such as Spike Lee and Barry Jenkins