IFC Films is acquiring the documentary MLK/FBI, directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar® nominee Sam Pollard. Based on the book The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From “Solo” to Memphis by David J. Garrow, MLK/FBI was written by Benjamin Hedin and Laura Tomaselli.
MLK/FBI was part of the Official Selection for the 2020 edition of the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. IFC Films will release the film on January 15, 2021 ahead of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.
MLK/FBI is the first film to uncover the extent of the FBI’s surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on newly discovered and declassified files, utilizing a trove of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and unsealed by the National Archives, as well as revelatory restored footage, the documentary explores the government’s history of targeting Black activists, and the contested meaning behind some of our most cherished ideals. Featuring interviews with key cultural figures including former FBI Director James Comey MLK/FBI tells this astonishing and tragic story with searing relevance to our current moment.
Sam Pollard is an Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated director and producer. His films for HBO, PBS, and the Discovery Channel include the documentaries Four Little Girls, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Slavery by Another Name, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I Gotta Be Me, ACORN and the Firestorm, Why We Hate, and Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. Pollard also directed two episodes of the groundbreaking series Eyes on the Prize II. Since 1994 Pollard has served on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and lives in New York City.
“What an honor to have IFC support and distribute MLK/FBI,” director Sam Pollard commented. “I can’t think of any other company that will show the care and responsibility to get what I consider an important film out to a viewing audience.”