Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993)
Overview
The Black Audio Film Collective’s seventh film envisioned the death and life of the African American revolutionary as a seven part study in iconography as narrated by novelist Toni Cade Bambara and actor Giancarlo Espesito. The stylized tableaux vivants that memorialise Malcolm’s life referenced the early 20th century funeral photography of James Van der Zee’s The Harlem Book of the Dead and the elemental static cinematography of Sergei Paradjanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates.
Cast
Olamide Faison
Young Malcolm
Giancarlo Esposito
Autobiography Reading (voice)
Coco Fusco
FBI Files Reading (as Coco Fusco)
Spike Lee
Yuri Kochiyama
Recommendations
McQueen
Sidney
I Am Heath Ledger
Come See Me in the Good Light
Love, Marilyn
Naqoyqatsi
Fuck
The Irishman: In Conversation
To Kill a Tiger
LA Originals
Heart of a Dog
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
Love, Gilda
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski
Above Majestic
21 Up
The Class of ‘92
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin
Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20