SEVEN SONGS FOR MALCOLM X

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, aka Malcolm X, is considered the Father of the Black Power movement, and one of the great African-American heroes of the 20th century. Filmed in New York during the release of Spike Lee's Malcolm X, this film combines interviews with friends and reconstructions from incidents in his life to provide a detailed portrait of a man who in his lifetime was called the «angriest man in America». Spike Lee, novelist Thulani Davis, Malcolm's prison friend Malcolm Jarvis, cultural critic Greg Tate and Malcolm's wife Betty Shabazz are among those interviewed. Giancarlo Esposito, star of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, reads from Malcolm's Autobiography, and narration is provided by novelist Tony Cade Bambara. Seven Songs for Malcolm X is a portrait of postwar American culture and one of its most mercurial figures.
When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire ... or preserve his freedom. (Malcolm X)

This film is part of the program Films of John Akomfrah.