Public Enemy (aka Off the Pigs)

Now between 50 and 60 years old, Bobby Seale, Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph and Nile Rodgers were members of the Black Panthers, ‘the greatest internal threat to the country’s security’ according to J. Edgar Hoover, the unrivetable head of the FBI known for his phobic racism. Created in October of 1966, the Black Panther party united various Black liberation movements and based its political platform on the revolutionary ideas of Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965. The party attempted to organize and above all politicize the anger of black youth in the ghettos, and although its followers were few, its influence was tremendous, however short-lived. Pressured by FBI persecution and internal conflicts, the Black Panthers ceased to exist in 1971. Punctuated with footage from the incandescent sixties, the film affectionately follows these four survivors, who try in vastly different ways to remain true to themselves, their memories furnishing the film’s raw material.