By Isha Khawaja
Malcolm X’s legacy was celebrated in the heart of Harlem. On Feb. 21 the Smithsonian Channel and The National Black Theatre hosted a private premiere of The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X. Tom Jennings, executive producer of the film, made the film because it is a “story that needs to be unfiltered” in order for viewers to decide for themselves what Malcolm X’s legacy actually was.
The premiere of the film can be defined as history itself. In the audience were foot soldiers of Malcolm X’s protests who helped organize the events, Malcolm X’s third daughter and Fordham alumni Ilyasah Shabazz and reporters who had spoken to the activist himself about his relationship to the founder of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad.
The film shines light on a history that has been distorted and debunks fallacies of Malcolm X. Mainstream history does not include the social context of hate and violence that he and his supporters endured. When Malcolm X typically comes up in conversation, he is compared to his political colleague, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X’s legacy is painted with hate and he is described as a militant black supremacist in comparison to the non-violent, peaceful opponent, King.
All images within the film were taken during the Civil Rights Movement. The film is a collection of recovered tapes, news interviews and still images that have not been seen, heard or broadcast since 1965. There are no contemporary media pieces or scholars speaking of Malcolm X in the film. The film is dedicated to allowing the viewer to envision the political activist within his day and historical circumstances, rather than how history remembers him.
The film shows Malcolm X as being an advocate of getting to the root cause of social issues, and as being highly critical of America in terms of its racial progress. “Dealing with the condition is not enough,” Malcolm X says in an interview in The Lost Tapes. “You can not push one negro in a white school, blow the media up and act like you solve the problem.” What Malcolm X is referring to is incredibly analogous of the popular opinion that America made great progress when Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States. The residual effects of 400 plus years of global exportation of people from Africa can not be fixed in America by Obama’s eight year presidency. As important as political representation is, there is a greater need for systematic reformation in order for America to progress.
The film is important because it challenges viewers to question the way history is taught. What we learn from textbooks is not necessarily an accumulation of events, but the appropriation of power within a hierarchy to benefit a certain group’s future. During a panel at the end of the film, Jennings recalls a memorable quote from one of his college professors: “Whoever controls the present uses their power to control the past in order to control the future.” In the midst of our current political climate, The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X reminds us that history is used to define who has power in the future.