With Attica receiving an Oscar nod for Best Documentary at the 94th Annual Academy Awards, (and losing to heavy favorite Summer of Soul), this is just the most recent accolade for filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who has won three Primetime Emmy Awards (two for 2011’s Freedom Riders and one for 2015’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution). As someone self-described as “…liking to make films that don’t highlight the great man or the great woman theory of history, [but rather] make films about movements,” these are a trio of documentaries the New York City native said resonates with him to this day.
(Photo by Corey Nickols/SHOWTIME)
The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
“This documentary about the Black Panthers had an appeal to me. It wasn’t trying to be objective. It was that Fred Hampton was murdered by the police in cold blood and that was the story. And I think that really had an influence on me. I realized that you could do this and you didn’t have to have a narrator who had the pretense of objectivity. You can say, ‘This was a murder, we’re going to tell you the story and we’re going to prove it’s a murder.’ That had a real effect on me. When I saw it, I was about 21 or 22.”
Eyes On the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement (1987; 1990)
“This resonated with me too. It was different because it was a series produced by Henry Hampton, who was an African-American. It was the first time you had seen something like that. The first part was six hours and it was about the civil rights movement. It seemed like it was very objective, but it was by a black filmmaker with a lot of mixed teams—African-American directors and producers.”
I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
“I Am Not Your Negro by Raoul Peck was really influential to me. I really loved that film because it really speaks to me. But I didn’t think anyone else would love it and understand it. Lo and behold, it was nominated for an Academy Award. And lo and behold, everyone understands it. That’s a hard trick to pull off. This film is really for me alone, but everybody understands it, so that’s a film I really admire.”
