New Biopic Will Explore Life of Former Black Panther Party Chair, Elaine Brown

By Sameer Rao Sep 25, 2017

Elaine Brown chaired the revolutionary Black Panther Party between 1974 and 1977. She chronicled her experience as the first and only Black woman to lead the organization in her 1992 memoir, "A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story." Now, the book will underpin a new film about her life.

Deadline reported on Friday (September 22) that film production company The Firm ("The Tribes of Palos Verdes") acquired the rights to Brown’s memoir. The Firm plans to adapt the book into a feature film, which Brown will executive produce alongside Academy Award-winning "Dallas Buyers Club" producer Robbie Brenner. Brown praised Brenner in the following tweet today (September 25):

Brenner also commented on the opportunity to Deadline: "Elaine is a true revolutionary. We are so thrilled to work with such an extraordinary woman and, after getting to know Elaine personally, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to bring her inspirational story to the big screen." 

Deadline’s report sums up Brown’s decades-long committment to intersectional activism and contemporary political resistance in the following quote: 

Brown, who is still very engaged in community and activism, would later run for different political offices. She even ran as a Green Party candidate in 2008. Back in 1968, she joined the Black Panthers and quickly became the editor of their publication (she also was a singer) and ended up in the upper ranks. In her role as the Black Panther leader (appointed by Newton himself) she led the male dominated party and worked to redefine the Panthers’ revolutionary platform to include objectives relating to Black women.

“The Black Panther Party certainly had a chauvinist tone, so we tried to change some of the clear gender roles so that women had guns and men cooked breakfast for children,” Brown said in the 2015 documentary, "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution." 

No details have been released regarding production dates.