MLK/FBI

Sam Pollard's resonant exploration of the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an American hero, yet throughout his history-altering career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. Sam Pollard’s sobering and essential documentary recounts the government’s obsession with the Civil Rights leader and their efforts to blackmail and disempower him during the height of the Civil Rights movement. Drawing upon newly discovered and declassified files, with a trove of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and unsealed by the National Archives, as well as revelatory restored footage, the documentary tells this astonishing and tragic story with searing relevance to our current moment.