Baadasssss!

Baadasssss! follows filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles as he sets out to make a movie of his own rather than accept studio assignments, determined to create a film by Black people and for Black people. The production proves difficult at every turn, and Melvin resorts to questionable methods and risky schemes to keep it going. Mario Van Peebles directs and plays his own father in this account of the making of the 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, with Melvin and Mario Van Peebles among the screenwriters and Mario producing. The cast includes Joy Bryant, Khleo Thomas, T.K. Carter, Terry Crews and Ossie Davis, among 28 credited performers.

The film belongs to the middle of Mario Van Peebles's directing career, arriving after New Jack City, Posse and Panther and before Hard Luck, Red Sky, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage and Outlaw Posse. Made by Showtime Networks and MVP Films, it runs 108 minutes.

Audience response on IMDb sits at 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 5,400 votes, a solid figure for a drama of this scale, while on TMDB the rating is 6.5 from a much smaller base of 62 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 from 107 reviews places the film slightly above its IMDb audience score.