King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970)

I’m not sure this is an actual documentary. It has no editorial or narrative structure per se, what it presents us with is as comprehensive a chronology of Dr. Martin Luther King as it is possible to get. From his humble beginnings in an Alabama ridden with bigotry and strife, through to his assassination in 1968, this uses a phenomenal amount of archive research to illustrate the power of his oratory. His speeches are powerful and emotional, but they never come across as angry or provocative of violence. His strength of character and purpose in the face of a long-established racial belligerence is really quite well captured as the film includes the large scale “I Have a Dream” set-pieces to far more intimate and poignant comments to smaller groups, churches or even just to his aides and friends as he travels the length and breadth of the country extolling the virtues of freedom for all. That all isn’t just for folks of colour, but those being persecuted for their religious beliefs too, or being disadvantaged because of their sex or social status. It’s hard to imagine who might actually watch all of this now, it is a long haul, but it goes quite some way to testifying just how effective oratory can be when delivered confidently and proudly to an audience eager to engage. There is enough annotation to help advise on the locations and timelines, and there are a few - slightly unnecessary, I felt - staged readings from the likes of Charlton Heston and James Earl Jones to help, as does the latter archive footage, demonstrate that his optimism wasn’t just inspiring those African Americans, but plenty from the descendants of it’s European immigrant population too. It doesn’t attempt to analyse the man, his motives or his personal life but I don’t think that was anyone’s plan. It’s a vehicle for his passion, and it works powerfully.