Seven Songs for Malcolm X

Seven Songs for Malcolm X

52 mins | Documentary | Oct. 1, 1993

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.

Seven Songs for Malcolm X

52 mins | Documentary | Oct. 1, 1993

Seven Songs for Malcolm X
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.
IMDb rating 5.3
Producers Channel 4 Television, Black Audio Film Collective
Original title Seven Songs for Malcolm X
Directors John Akomfrah
Writers Edward George, John Akomfrah

Cast

Darrick Harris

as Malcolm X

Danny Carter

as Malcolm's Man

Martin Boothe

as Malcolm's Man

Byron O. Hurlock

as Malcolm's Man

Edward George

as Malcolm's Man

Tricia Rose

as Malcolm's Mother

Theodore L. Cash

as Malcolm's Father

Olamide Faison

as Young Malcolm

Giancarlo Esposito

as Autobiography Reading (voice)

Toni Cade Bambara

as Commentary (voice)

Coco Fusco

as FBI Files Reading (as Coco Fusco)

Tiffany Nelson

as Girl

Tiffany Tate

as Girl

Wilfred X

as (as Wilfred Little)

Robin D.G. Kelley

as (as Robin Kelley)

Benjamin 2X

as (as Iman Benjamin Karim)