Artfully squeezing every penny out of a grant from the French Cinema Center, Melvin Van Peebles made his directorial debut with Story of a Three-Day Pass. Harry Baird plays a black American GI, Turner, who falls in love with French mademoiselle (Nicole Berger). Upon his return from an idyllic weekend, Turner is demoted by his bigoted captain for fraternizing with a white girl. Honored as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, this poignant little romantic drama "made" Van Peebles, who on the strength of his newly established reputation was assigned to direct Columbia's The Watermelon Man. Story of a Three-Day Pass was based on Van Peebles' own novel La Permission.