NYWIFT Industry Screening: MLK|FBI (Q&A Added)

NYWIFT invites you to a screening of MLK|FBI starting Monday, January 17th through Friday, January 21st.

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 Girls, Mo’ Better Blues; Director/Producer, Eyez on the Prize, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me) 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.

Screening Dates: Film available from Monday, January 17th through Friday, January 21st.

How to See the Film: Links will be sent out on Monday, January 17th

Q&A: Friday, January 21st at 4:00pm. Moderated by NYWIFT Executive Director, Cynthia Lopez.

Cost: Free

Register

Panelists

Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director whose work spans almost 30 years. He recently served as Producer and Supervising Editor on the Spike Lee directed HBO documentary If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, a five year follow up to the Emmy- and Peabody-award winning When The Levees Broke. His first assignment as a documentary producer came in 1989 for Henry Hampton’s Blackside production Eyes On The Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads. For one of his episodes in this series, he received an Emmy. He returned to Blackside as Co-Executive Producer/Producer of Hampton’s documentary series I’ll Make Me A World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community. For the series, Pollard received The George Peabody Award. Between 1990 and 2010, Pollard edited a number of Spike Lee’s films: Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, and Bamboozled. As well, Pollard and Lee co-produced a number of documentary productions for the small and big screen: Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson, a biographical sketch for HBO for which Pollard received an Emmy; Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings, which was nominated for an Academy Award; and When The Levees Broke, a four-part documentary that won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Pollard completed as a producer/director Slavery By Another Name, a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Festival in 2012 and also just completed editing the feature length documentary Venus and Serena.

Cynthia López (Moderator) is an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs. López is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. In addition, she received the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Commitment to Corporate Diversity. Prior to working as Commissioner, López was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. López is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all portions of the film and television industry. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center, NYC & Company, Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Latino Public Broadcasting, Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Hunter College IMA Program.