MLK/FBI

2020, Documentary, 1h 42m

125 Reviews 50+ Ratings

What to know

critics consensus

MLK/FBI presents a sobering overview of the American intelligence community's efforts to discredit and destroy a leader of the civil rights movement. Read critic reviews

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MLK/FBI Videos

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MLK/FBI Photos

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Movie Info

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.

Cast & Crew

David Garrow
Self
Donna Murch
Self
Marc Perrusquia
Self
Andrew Young
Self
Beverly Gage
Self
Clarence Jones
Self
Samuel D. Pollard
Director
Benjamin Hedin
Writer
Laura Tomaselli
Writer
Charlotte Cook
Executive Producer
Steven Farneth
Executive Producer
David Friend
Executive Producer
Marie Therese Guirgis
Executive Producer
Kate Hurwitz
Executive Producer
Benjamin Hedin
Producer
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Critic Reviews for MLK/FBI

All Critics (125) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (2)
Full Review… Soraya Nadia McDonald Andscape Full Review… tt stern-enzi WXIX-TV (Cincinnati, OH) Full Review… Amon Warmann Empire Magazine Full Review… Leonard Maltin leonardmaltin.com Full Review… K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone Full Review… Simran Hans Observer (UK) Full Review… Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Full Review… Christopher Bourne In Review Online Full Review… Witney Seibold Critically Acclaimed Podcast Full Review… Noah Schwartz Film Threat Full Review… John Serba Decider Full Review… Paul M. Bradshaw NME
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Audience Reviews for MLK/FBI

  • Mar 09, 2021
    "Looking at the FBI campaigns against King, the Black Panther party, and many other people I think there's a core component to this that really is structural and functional. People hold these attitudes and we focus on J. Edgar Hoover's own particular history and person, but I think that these are attitudes that have been core to how the racial order operates in the U.S. What helped motivate these campaigns was the real fear that black people could undermine the way the country wanted to see itself. And this manifested itself not only in the targeting of leaders and the people that were visible, but of ordinary people. So, this core fear and aggression toward African Americans has a lot to do with white people's own conception of themselves and black people forcing a reckoning with the violence of the American past." Hot. Damn.
    Philip P Super Reviewer
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