Script treatment for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The original, typewritten script treatment for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, written by Melvin Van Peebles. The script is typewritten in black ink on the reverse of white Columbia Pictures stationary paper and bound across the top with three staples. The pages are hand-numbered at top center and there are handwritten notes, edits, and corrections throughout in both graphite and black ink. The reverse of the pages have the Columbia Pictures letterhead with Hollywood address and telephone number at the top and "A Division of Columbia Pictures, Inc." across the bottom. There is no coversheet or title on the first page, the script begins with a description of the film's first scene, "Women lined up like a sort of feminine wild bunch, standing in a semi circle around a kitchen table." There is a handwritten editor's mark at the beginning of the sentence indicating a new paragraph.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1971
• Written by: Melvin Van Peebles, American, 1932 - 2021
• Type: treatments (documents)
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: 11 1/16 x 8 5/8 x 1 1/4 in. (28.1 x 21.9 x 3.2 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blaxploitation films
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Independent films
• Topic: Photography
• Object number: 2012.82.7
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Melvin Van Peebles Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.