Though never officially a member, Van Peebles film, Sweet Sweetbacks Badass. His son, filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles, appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film Baadasssss!. This book is a novel about the rise of the Black Panther Party by an insider. He followed this up with the musical, Don't Play Us Cheap, based on his own stage play, and continued to make films, write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades his final films include the French-language film Le Conte du ventre plein (2000) and the absurdist film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha (2008). In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, considered one of the earliest and best-regarded examples of the blaxploitation genre. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.

The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s.

Panther, director Mario Van Peebles with father. Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles Aug– September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. Melvin Van Peebles never thought, ‘My reward is going to be people acknowledging me, let alone people who are cultural trespassers.

Panther by Melvin Van Peebles