Sweet Sweetback's baadasssss song was shot in 19 days on a wheezing budge with a crew recruited largely from skin flicks and the streets. Critics hated it, distributors shunned it, and black audiences loved it. "Melvin Van Peebles' book about the making of his box office hit represents something new and something very good. Written in "street talk" as a primer for young filmmakers as well as a primer for black artists, Van Peebles explains how he attached the problem of making a totally black film that would gain national release. it is both entertaining and instructive to listen to Van Peebles explain how he worked around the established film community--trade unions, film processing laboratories and money people--in order to make his story. He discusses his dealings with studio executives, investors, banking men, the screen Actors guild, his arguments with the crew and technicians, and tricks he had to pull to keep them working long hours. On and on it goes with Van Peebles using the savvy of street hustler doing anything to get his film completed" Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune.--page 4 of cover.