THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X SERIAL
THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X ARCHIVE
THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X SERIES

Through word of mouth, the studio was put in touch with Gene Simpson, a former freelance radio reporter in New York who happened to be in the Audubon Ballroom on Feb. With Malcolm X, Jennings’ Los Angeles-based production studio took the process even further. “We want the stuff that people would think, ‘Why would you want to have that material?’”

THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X ARCHIVE

“For us to create these motion pictures from archive material, we need everything,” Jennings, a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, stresses.

THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X SERIES

From there, researchers track down experts and authors to mine them for deeper information with a series of off-camera interviews. Searching for suitable footage typically begins by scouring the major archive houses such as Getty Images and the National Archive before moving onto local television and radio stations, as well as major news networks. “Tom looks for the footage that people have overlooked or have just not looked at carefully enough the film that never made it into the news programs or documentaries but actually has a poignancy or added meaning with the experience of time,” explains Royle.īy obtaining the raw, original tapes and avoiding polished “highlight reels” typically supplied to producers and researchers, Jennings and his 1895 team have managed to offer new perspectives on subjects such as Malcolm X and Patty Hearst. In determining which subjects to tackle, Smithsonian and 1895 alike aim to cover a wide range of important events in American history that resonate in the modern day, and that have a bounty of previously unseen or disregarded materials. Forthcoming episodes of the franchise will touch upon the Vietnam War, NASA’s space program, natural disasters, significant political events and further notorious murderers.

THE LOST TAPES MALCOLM X SERIAL

Previous installments of ‘The Lost Tapes’ have covered the 1945 attacks on Pearl Harbor the 1992 LA Riots the murderous rampage of infamous serial killer David ‘Son of Sam’ Berkowitz and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the domestic terrorist group the Symbionese Liberation Army, which ended in her arrest in September 1975. “The best of these films, in some ways, are history pieces but speak to a contemporary world today and resonate with the events that we’re experiencing right now,” adds David Royle, Smithsonian Channel’s EVP of programming and production, and an EP on ‘The Lost Tapes’, along with the channel’s John Cavanagh and Charles Poe. “They force the viewer to be part of the story.” “These archive-driven shows, if they’re done well, put you there in a way that even the best experts, authors, academics and witnesses can’t. “There’s such an authenticity to the real material,” Tom Jennings, founder of 1895 Films and executive producer on ‘The Lost Tapes,’ tells realscreen. Instead, the project relies solely on the strength of Malcolm’s voice, home videos, localized media broadcasts from the time, and audio tapes from illustrative radio newscasts. ET across Smithsonian, recounts the activist’s story without taped narration, talking heads or recreation. The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X, which premieres during Black History Month on Feb.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and later adopting “X” to signify his lost tribal name, serves as the subject of the latest installment of Smithsonian Channel’s ‘The Lost Tapes’ franchise.

It would be the first time the American public would become aware of the charismatic Muslim minister and controversial human rights activist, but it wouldn’t be the last. Unable to do so and with the situation at an impasse, the preacher signaled for the masses assembled to disperse in an orderly fashion. By evening, a crowd well into the thousands had surrounded the station as Malcolm X reportedly attempted to pay Hinton’s bail. After being taken to the hospital, Hinton was then once again detained by police. All four men were arrested and taken to the 28th Precinct stationhouse.Īlerted by a witness, Malcolm X, chief minister at the NOI’s West Harlem temple, descended upon the jailhouse with a small group demanding Hinton receive adequate medical attention. Officers then focused their efforts on the three men, beating Hinton so severely on the head that he would suffer brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. With those words, Johnson Hinton and two passersby, all three members of the Nation of Islam (NOI), attempted to deter two New York City police officers from clubbing an African-American man on a warm, late April night in 1957. “You’re not in Alabama - this is New York!”

The lost tapes malcolm x