| Van Peebles's low-budget 1971 movie "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" — an X-rated film about a Black revolutionary's survival on the run — was a milestone of independent and African American cinema. In its defiance of all convention, the film served as a lodestar to underfunded but visionary independent moviemakers, including Quentin Tarantino, Warrington Hudlin and Spike Lee. | 
