Black Power Mixtape is a documentary composed of a treasure trove of recently found footage, shot by Swedish journalists from the period. The 16mm film has been recomposed by director Göran Olsson to give an outside and European perspective of the Black Power movement.

Devised into nine chapters, it plots the evolution of the movement and its three main themes: the pacifist theology, birth of reactional violence and plague of the emerging drug culture.

The first thing to note here is that the footage is beautiful. The spools have been cut and crafted with care and the retro feel of the 16mm is completely immersive, whilst the music gives you a real flavour of the period. Filmed in colour and black and white, all the footage and interviews are original with just a few commentaries added to the mix.

The film immediately throws you in at the deep end, beginning with the speeches of SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael. Arguing succinctly and passionately for things that we take for granted now, it’s almost impossible to believe. Yet this is where the film truly shows its brilliance. It does not fall into the trap of many documentaries by lecturing or disconnecting from its audience. With some truly astounding and candid footage it shows Carmichael singing with his friends, chatting to his mother and all the day-to-day things so often overlooked; suddenly you are aware that this is a real and ordinary man, not some figurehead or disconnected shell. You would want to be his friend, and it is this that really pulls you into the movie, to truly empathise with those on the screen.

This also causes you to reel in shock at the police brutality and treatment of the minority. This handling of the delicate subject matter continues through Malcolm X and Angela Davis, giving a fascinating view of the time.

Rather than alienating or corrupting the issues, the outsider viewpoint seems to be the more accurate, rather than being clouded by emotion or preconception. The view the film takes has its critics and it answers them within the film. The only criticism is that it does lose some of its personal touch around the middle, getting a little bogged down in some of the complexities of the issues. But, overall this is a fantastic watch; fascinating and touching.