Saturday, May 8, 5:30 PM, The Hall at Brown Center

Director: Orlando Bagwell, Noland Walker

Cast: Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Taylor Branch, Andrew Young

Country: U.S.
Year: 2003
Running Time: 106 minutes
Format: Beta SP

When historical figures are mythologized, a certain two-dimensionality sets in that ironically diminishes their power. Once this myth takes hold, it takes great passion and creative skills to break through the “known” story, and make us see in a new way. For Martin Luther King, Taylor Branch’s great series of books, Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and the forthcoming Edge of Canaan, are one example. Orlando Bagwell’s and Noland Walker’s Citizen King is another.

By focusing on the last five years of Dr King’s life, Bagwell and Walker have crafted a highly personal portrait from seldom and never-seen archival footage. The film features fascinating interviews from mostly unknown King cohorts, and historians (Taylor Branch appears frequently), and has a terrific score composed by Baltimore native Kamara Cambon. King assembled an insurgency of ordinary citizens, mostly poor blacks from the fields of the Deep South, and, suggested that they alone could overcome the structural racism that had haunted our country since its founding. Against great and intimidating power, this army won. The incredible political acumen, the determination, the humor, and the fundamental humanity that made this victory possible came from deep inside Dr King.

Most incredibly, overcoming racism encouraged Dr King to keep examining the issues around him- poverty, and a newly expanding war in Vietnam drew his unyielding attention. To his last breath, Dr King tried to help us see and solve problems. With the immediacy of tonight’s news, and the intimacy of a family story, the filmmakers tell Dr King’s amazing story in a newly powerful and dramatic way.

--Jed Dietz

Preceded by:

CHILDREN OF BIRMINGHAM – Kids On The Hill (6:00)

This animated short describes the powerful role young people had in changing the laws of segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The story and artwork was created through Kids on the Hill’s summer program. Participants were young people ages 10-14. They made the story and images based on a book called Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch and through studying historic photographs.