TRAILERS

Official Trailer for Excellent 'MLK/FBI' Doc About MLK's Surveillance

by Alex Billington
November 18, 2020
Source: YouTube

"Staying calm under fire is very hard…" IFC Films has unveiled a trailer for an excellent documentary titled MLK/FBI, which recently premiered at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals this fall. It's also playing at festivals all around the world on a brief festival tour before arriving in theaters in January early next year. We fully expect this film to be on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentaries in 2020. Based on newly declassified files, Pollard's resonant film explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite his heroic status in history nowadays, MLK/FBI examines how the US government (and specifically the FBI) viewed him as an "enemy of the state". Not only did they surveil him and follow him, they often went after him in vicious ways to undermine his progress and destabilize his attempts at unity and peace. The film is very timely examination of how this occurred and that even though MLK may not have been perfect, he's still not the "bad guy" that the FBI tried to portray him as. Of course.

Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Sam Pollard's doc MLK/FBI, direct from IFC's YouTube:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an iconic American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader for the nation. 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 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. MLK/FBI is directed by acclaimed American producer / filmmaker Sam Pollard, director of the docs Two Trains Runnin', The Talk: Race in America, ACORN and the Firestorm, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me, Maynard, and Mr. Soul! previously, producer on many other docs, and editor on 4 Little Girls, Venus and Serena. This just premiered at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals this fall. IFC Films will debut Pollard's MLK/FBI in select theaters + on VOD starting January 15th, 2021 early next year. Look good?

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