THIST 416 Life and Thought: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis: Films

From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader's character, showing him to be a man with an unshakeable commitment to peaceful protest in the face of an increasingly unstable country. Illuminating and poignant, the documentary - which is tied to the 50th anniversary of King's death - reveals a conflicted leader whose successes were punctuated in his final years by an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, whether the Black Power movement, who saw his nonviolence as weakness, or President Lyndon B. Johnson, who viewed his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible. With compassion and clarity, King in the Wilderness unearths a stirring new perspective into Dr. King's character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence, and his internal philosophical struggles prior to his death, inviting a sense of penetrating intimacy and insight into one of the most profound thinkers of our time.

In this virtuosic documentary film, award-winning editor, and director Sam Pollard lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King's activism throughout the '50s 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.

Ava DuVernay’s 2014 historical drama portrays Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s struggle to secure voting rights for all people. A dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.

Directed by Spike Lee, screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.

Brother Minister: The Assassination of Malcom X is a long, earnest, complex documentary that tries to set the record straight on 30 years of speculation and lies. This film names names. Includes 60 minutes of bonus material.

A ... docudrama that takes a gripping look at the historical incidents that created an international movement to free activist Angela Davis, and tells the story of social justice activism that lands her on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of
16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by
stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the
leaders of the Black Power Movement Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale,
Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews

Prominent black women comment upon experiences of African American women, upon racial discrimination and its effects upon the American culture and make suggestions which they hope will improve the future. Includes historical footage of civil rights movement in the 1960s.