Maysles Documentary Center is holding a free screening of Stanley Nelson's The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015). The screening is Wednesday, May 6th at 7pm. You can RSVP from their website: https://www.maysles.org

Following the film, there will be a discussion with Professor Calvin Smiley (CUNY Hunter College) and Alex Mitchell (graduate of the Bard Prison Initiative).

ounded in Oakland in 1966, the Black Panther Party didn’t simply emerge, it ignited. Against the backdrop of police violence and structural inequality, it forged a bold vision of Black self-determination, organizing in the streets while imagining a different future in real time.

THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION unfolds like a recovered memory, equal parts fire and testimony. Through intimate interviews with those who lived the movement and electrifying, restored archival footage, the film captures the Panthers at full voltage, disciplined, charismatic, and under relentless surveillance. What emerges is not just a history, but a pulse: the rhythm of a revolution that still echoes.