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.
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)