The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 2011

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is not your standard documentary dealing with racism in America. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is a tangy raw stew of history, even if it never begins to confront the contradictions that bedeviled black militancy. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: You are left in a bracing state of confusion, wondering how much has changed and how the change took place. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The pieces here are wonderful, even if the documentary fails to make any kind of overall analytical point. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: From the fly-on-the-wall, cinema-verite style of the '60s to a more aggressive, advocacy approach in the mid-'70s, "Mixtape" is a wide slice of nonfiction film history. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Because Olsson is working exclusively with film shot by other people, with their own 40-year-old agenda, he loses some of what decades of reflection, reconsideration, and historical context could've brought. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: You watch the material here and wonder whether most of the movies made about black people are meant to pacify general audiences, to distract them from demanding more of the movies. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Broken into nine chapters -- one for each year -- the documentary isn't a rigorous work but a felt piece of vital, if flawed, art. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: The Black Power Mixtape includes plenty of interest, but it would be stronger if the filmmakers had dug a little deeper into the footage from 1967 to 1972 and skipped the final years altogether. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This chronicle of pride and social upheaval is filled with vintage images and important voices. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: It is mostly impressionistic - but, wow, some of those impressions really pack a punch. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's thrilling to hear from unrepentant revolutionaries such as Angela Davis and amusing to hear from their bell-bottomed white lawyers. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: The film is testament to the power of archival legwork in documentary-filmmaking. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Like any mixtape, it offers some truly transcendent moments alongside a smattering of filler, and never quite assembles its pieces into a cohesive whole. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Black nationalism lives and breathes in this remarkably fresh documentary assembled by Goran Hugo Olsson. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A film that suffers from a surfeit of credulity. Read more