City Desk: “Malcolm X” / American Playhouse: “The Meeting”
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series “You Had Better Make Some Noise”: Malcolm X at 100.
In-person: Q&A with playwright Jeff Stetson, author of “The Meeting.”
City Desk: “Malcolm X” (3/17/1963)
In this local public affairs program produced on color videotape, civil rights activist Malcolm X fields questions from a panel of white journalists and explicates the meaning of the “X” in his name. The broadcast illuminates a vital period in Malcolm X’s trajectory: in 1963, the leader began a collaboration on his highly influential autobiography with author Alex Haley and, by year’s end, became embroiled in a transformative separation from the Nation of Islam.
DCP, color, 27 min. Production: WMAQ-TV. Guest: Malcolm X. Moderator: Jim Hurlbut. Panel: Floyd Kalber, Charles McCuen, Len O'Connor. Use courtesy of NBC 5 Chicago.
American Playhouse: “The Meeting” (5/3/1989)
Director Bill Duke (The Killing Floor) helms Jeff Stetson’s powerful adaptation of his acclaimed stage play that imagines a clandestine meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Jason Bernard) and Malcolm X (Dick Anthony Williams). Secluded in a claustrophobic Harlem hotel room in 1965, the two civil rights activists and ministers debate their divergent philosophies with fire and a weary camaraderie — while right outside their door, deadly forces surveil and plot in the shadows.
DCP, color, 70 min. KCET. Production: KCET in association with Hillard Elkins Entertainment, Yagya Productions, and Jeff Stetson. Executive Producer: Hillard Elkins. Producer: Rick Franklin. Director: Bill Duke. Writer: Jeff Stetson. With: Dick Anthony Williams, Jason Bernard, Paul Benjamin. Use courtesy of PBS SoCal. Special thanks to Gerry Bryant.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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