Director Mario Van Peebles and sons Mandela(L) and Makaylo(R) are getting ready to premiere their new movie We the Party, which is due out on April 6th. Created with the coming-of-age theme in mind, We the Party explores the various struggles that youth must endure in today’s society while on the journey to becoming adults.
When asked about inspiration surrounding the project , Mario said, “I started going out with [my sons] and taking notes, writing stuff down and listening to it… I thought, what would it look like in 2012 if you could make that smart coming-of-age movie now and make it multicultural.”
VIDEO: Check out the trailer to “We The Party”
In addition to discussing the project’s plot, Mario talked about racism in America. Peebles states, “It’s cool that Jackie Robinson got to play baseball, but it didn’t mean that baseball was integrated. It’s brilliant that we have a beautiful, smart black family in the White House but that doesn’t mean America is post racial. We’re seeing the evidence of that [with the Trayvon Martin case].”
Mario is married to Chitra Sukhu. The couple proudly parent five children.