Ma Rainey s Black Bottom and
One Night in Miami. (Amazon Studios) have more in common than you might expect.
Both were based on plays by Black playwrights and feel theatrical and stagey in good and bad ways. Both are set in the past and deal with racist issues, making them timelier than ever. Both feature a singer among the lead roles. Both star a majority Black cast and are helmed by Black directors.
Directed by Oscar-winning actress Regina King,
One Night in Miami. is a fictional dramatization inspired by true events. An adaptation of Kemp Powers play of the same name, it brings together four men from different backgrounds whose contributions to Black culture continues to resonate to the present day.
The film, directed by George C. Wolfe and released by Netflix, is a poignant, masterful exploration of the dilemma of Black art in Jim and Jane Crow America. Ma knows who she is and refuses to compromise. She plays a style of music that made her famous in the Black South, and she won’t pander. But she is challenged by other band members who have a different understanding of the role of music in American racial dynamics. Young, talented trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman, in his last film before his death) thinks he can make music that will catapult him to a new level of fame and popularity with White and northern Black audiences, without losing his identity and artistic freedom.
Every movement has its icons. Its legends. The people who empowered and influenced, the people we learn about in school. But what happens when they’re all put in a room together?
Inspired by a real photo taken of four black icons during the Civil Rights Movement Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown–Regina King’s drama “One Night in Miami,” first released on Jan. 15, depicts a fictional account of the meeting. This film marks Regina King’s debut as a movie director after acting in Hollywood since 1985.
Set in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s, on Feb. 25, 1964, the Muslim minister and civil rights activist Malcolm X played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, boxing champion Muhammad Ali, also known as Cassius Clay, (Eli Goree), singer-songwriter Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and NFL football star and athlete Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) all meet up in Malcolm’s hotel room after Clay became the new heavyweight champion. They thought they were going out to celebrate
Films with historical relevance often depict Black pain as the singular monolith, but Amazon Prime Video's, One Night in Miami, directed by Regina King, flips