The Filmmaker as Historian: Sam Pollard and âMLK/FBIâ
Whether working on his own projects or others like âEyes on the Prize IIâ and â4 Little Girls,â the multihyphenate artist has built a monumental career examining America.
Sam Pollard in New York. He “is a master filmmaker,” Spike Lee said. “If you say he’s just an editor or just a director, that’s not the whole story.”Credit.Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times
By Nicolas Rapold
Jan. 15, 2021
Midway through the new documentary âMLK/FBI,â we get glimpses of a Martin Luther King Jr. not often seen in the usual montages of the civil rights movement. The 1963 March on Washington has taken place and he has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. This King is under myriad strains from the burdens of leadership, budding concerns about Vietnam, political and mortal threats, and round-the-clock surveillance by his own countryâs chief law enforcement agency.