Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975

Design by Stefania Malmsten of the collateral for a powerful documentary released in 2011. The central promotional image is a beautiful crop of a still of Angela Davis from the documentary. The typography in the print and film materials is set using Jonathan Hoefler’s & Tobias Frere-Jones’ Mercury typeface.

The PBS announcement of the film described it:

For three decades, the film canisters sat undisturbed in a cellar beneath the Swedish National Broadcasting Company. Inside was roll after roll of startlingly fresh and candid 16mm footage shot in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, all of it focused on the anti-war and Black Power movements. When filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson discovered the footage, he decided he had a responsibility to shepherd this glimpse of history into the world.

With contemporary audio interviews from leading African American artists, activists, musicians and scholars, The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 looks at the people, society, culture, and style that fuelled an era of convulsive change. Utilizing an innovative format that riffs on the popular 1970s mixtape format, Mixtape is a cinematic and musical journey into the black communities of America.

Notes about the design of the collateral from its designer, Stefania Malmsten:

Award-winning documentary feature film directed by Göran Hugo Olsson, premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2011. The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 is a compilation feature documentary film that displays the story of the African-American community, the people, the society and the style that fueled a change. The studio designed film titles; posters; DVD covers and promotion material in close collaboration with the film’s director and editor in New York and Stockholm.

Watch the trailer for the film. The film can be streamed on Kanopy and on Amazon. A related book was also released.