MLK or MLM?
Martin Luther King, Jr Was a Republican is a local documentary from Nate Perkins. As one can tell form the straight forward title the films premise is that King was a Republican.
This one hour film played at this year's Independent Black Film Festival and I was really hoping to delve into a serious exploration of King's politics and background.
The visceral reaction to any claims that MLK was a Republican by Black folk and liberals is that his Civil Rights record, anti-poverty crusade and approach to non-violent change makes MLK a poor fit within the Republican party. True or not, a documentary that forces one to truly question who King would ally with could add dimension to a man who has been distilled down into bumper-sticker aphorisms. It would also help expand a dialogue that has increasingly become mired in a 60s world view of liberal and conservative, with no room for nuance.
The movie starts strong, using a monologue from Harry Belafonte shot in b&w. Belafonte stares into the camera eloquently speaking of a man that "loves truth even more than he loves life, or his wife, or his children." "The kind of man that will do what he sees as justice even if the earth yawns and swallows him down." It's a bone chilling opening.
It's never revealed who the man Belafonte is talking about and if it is King, Belafonte's words are made more potent by never explicitly stating that. Just thinking about what Belafonte is saying and not who what he's saying is being applied to forces the viewer to really think about what qualities define a person. Qualities independent of party affiliation or political bent.
However, after that, the film immediately devolves into an infomercial touting Perkins' marketing savvy that intermittently mythologizes Perkins own conservative conversion. Apparently Atlanta has a genius amongst its midst, a man who has tapped into the internet's hidden power. According to the doc Perkins knows MLM (multi-level marketing) like no one's business.
Every ten minutes or so Perkins remembers that King is in the title and he'll include a picture of King or his family and a bit of dialogue. However he concerns himself more with making statements like "the democrats passed those Jim Crow laws" and "Republicans started the NAACP, Affirmative Action and the HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities."
That last statement is fraught with blatant inconsistencies, such as the fact that most HBCUs were started by churches and evangelical groups. And even if one accepts that the NAACP was founded by Republicans Perkins doesn't explain why in 2007 these two organizations frequently find themselves on opposite sides of issues.
If a documentary is this weak and devoid of useful dialogue, why review it?
You know what.
Now I'm not sure why even wasted the space or the time.
Charles Judson is a local screen & comic book writer and a regular contributor and film critic for CinemATL.
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