Malcolm X Commemoration Committee to Launch First Human Rights Film Festival

The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee (MXCC) will host its first annual Malcolm X Human Rights Film Festival Sept. 11-12 in partnership with Harlem’s Maysles Documentary Center, where all films will be screened at 343 Malcolm X Blvd.

The two-day festival, themed “Honor and Sacrifice,” will highlight Black history, human rights and social justice while recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party and the centennials of jazz musician John Coltrane and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Zayid Muhammad, chair of the MXCC, said he has wanted the festival for decades.

“We are proud to finally be able to do it,” Muhammad said.

The festival opens Friday at 7 p.m. with Malcolm X: The Struggle for Freedom, a film featuring Malcolm X in a 1964 interview in Paris. Writer and scholar Lebert Bethune will receive the MXCC Long Distance Runner Award for the film’s impact.

The opening night will also feature Chasing Trane, a documentary about Coltrane’s life and legacy as a jazz saxophonist and composer.

Saturday’s programming begins at 1 p.m. with Malcolm X and the Sudanese, which explores Malcolm X’s relationship with his Sudanese scholar, Ahmed Osman.

Next is Eyes of the Rainbow, a film by Afro-Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando about exiled Black Panther Party member Assata Shakur that organizers say highlights the connection between the Black Panther Party and the Cuban Revolution. A conversation with K’Sisay Sadiki, Shakur’s stepdaughter, will follow the screening and include discussion of her father, veteran Black Panther Party member Kamau Sadiki.

Norman/Norman, about a son confronting his father and family trauma, will also be screened, with filmmaker Norman Davy and leaders of New York City’s Brides’ March against domestic violence taking part in a discussion afterward. The Forgotten Occupation, about the legacy of the U.S. occupation of Haiti, rounds out the Saturday lineup.

Organizers said the festival connects Malcolm X’s legacy to issues of human rights, racism, violence and global affairs.

The committee is also planning a similar festival in Newark on Nov. 6-7 as it expands its programming in New Jersey.

For more information, contact the MXCC at 973-202-0745 or babazayid@gmail.com.