text=Feature Documentary 35mm, 90mins, France, Germany 1999

A film about four remarkable, charismatic and famous Americans whove been leading wildly dissimilar lives - yet they have one thing in common: They are all former Black Panthers, members of the black liberation movement that once scared mainstream America.  It is a film about today, about fighters after their fight. And it\\\'s about American lives - a multi-millionaire, a political prisoner, a mother, and a troubled existence. The Public Enemies are: prisoner-turned-playwright Jamal Joseph; musician and record producer Nile Rodgers (Chic, Sister Sledge); the highest-ranking female panther Kathleen Cleaver, today a law professor; and the last surviving founding member of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale.  Set in the present day, PUBLIC ENEMY focuses on the personal lives of these people and their involvement in the Panthers history. Through them, we investigate what is left of their dreams and visions - and of one of the strongest and provocative civil rights movements of the 60`s. It deals with popular culture as well as with the possibilities and limits of revolutionary change. What are their conclusions? What are the lessons they learnt? What are their traumas? What are their dreams now? How does America perceive them today?  PUBLIC ENEMY is a film about revolutionaries and what has become of their revolution.  Short sequences of dramatic archive footage illustrate the Panthers history. A specially commissioned sountrack, performed by Nile Rodgers with young American musicians, is used to comment on the relevance of the Panthers now.  Altogether, PUBLIC ENEMY is a provocative interpretation of the dark side of the American Dream. 

DIRECTOR: Jens Meurer
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Torsten Lippstock  
PRODUCER: Denis Freyd
CO-PRODUCER: Archipel 33 (Paris), Egoli Films (Berlin), Kinotar Oy 
BROADCASTER: La Sept / ARTE, YLE, Channel 4, DR, RTBF  
DISTRIBUTED BY: Real-Fiction