de bene esse: Black Panther Party

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

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Night Catches Us a new film on the Black Panther Movement, written and directed by Tanya Hamilton rests on her premise,"To me, the Panthers have not been allowed to be humanized,"....

The Black Panther Party - still a divisive chapter of American History - surfaced in Oakland in 1966 with the 10 point program subtitled "What We Want, What We Believe" that included healthcare, education reform, housing and employment issues. Issues distinctly important before MLK's assassination that remain strikingly relevant today.

Panther Iconography - leather jackets, berets, guns and clashes with law enforcement have dwarfed their sincere core beliefs. Black Panther discourse have been focused on the early years, largely in documentaries.

The rise of the Panthers after triumphs of the civil rights movement in the 1960s are tragic and romantic according to Hamilton who left Jamaica aged 8 for the U.S. in 1976 and grew up hearing about them. Her project took 10 years from script to screen.

"It's a hard story to tell. The movement and the times were larger than life." Jamal Joseph joined at 15 and now chairs the graduate film department at Columbia U. Historical fact - government-sponsored disinformation campaign against the Panthers was real.

The members of the movement were complex and that complexity has been lost. Hamilton contends the party in it's purest form was a grassroots organizaton of people committed and connected to community who wanted to make a difference and like all political movements - things got complicated.