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Courtesy of IFC Films.

SCREENING, SCREENING + DISCUSSION

MLK/FBI and discussion with Sam Pollard

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021 at 7:00 pm

Join us for a free online screening of MLK/FBI followed by a live discussion on Tuesday, February 23, at 7:00 p.m. ET with director Sam Pollard and Jamila Wignot (director, Ailey).

MLK/FBI
Dir. Sam Pollard. United States, 2020, 102 mins. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader. Yet throughout his history-altering political career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. In this virtuosic documentary, award-winning editor and director Sam Pollard (Editor, 4 Little GirlsMo’ Better Blues; Director/Producer, Eyez on the PrizeSammy Davis, Jr: I’ve Gotta Be Me) lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism throughout the 1950s and ’60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. In crafting a rich archival tapestry, featuring some revelatory restored footage of King, Pollard urges us to remember that true American progress is always hard-won. View trailer.

Special thanks to IFC Films for their support of this program.

About the moderator: Jamila Wignot‘s directing work includes the series The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, which won the Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, and the NAACP Image Award; Town Hall, a documentary portrait of Tea Party activists; Peabody Award–winning Triangle Fire; and Emmy-nominated Walt Whitman. Wignot’s producing credits include W. Kamau Bell’s Bring the Pain; Musa Syeed’s A Stray; and WNET’s The Supreme Court: the Rehnquist Revolution, an IDA Best Limited Series winner. Her newest film, Ailey, a documentary about the legendary dance pioneer Alvin Ailey, debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Watch the recorded conversation here.

While this event is free, we hope you will consider supporting the Museum with a donation. MoMI’s staff is working hard to fulfill its mission via remote programming. This comes with opportunities to experiment but also profound challenges. Your support is critical to ensure our work remains vital and visible to a broad public. Suggested donation: $10. Donate here.

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