Yesterday
Roads To Memphis *Spirit Of The Sixties* *UK Premiere*
Sunday 9th October, 10.30pm
With the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Malcolm X and then Martin Luther King, America in the 1960s was a dangerous, tumultuous place for anyone who was trying to change the world.
For Kennedy, his global-view liberalism clashed with established, post-war conservatism, while Malcolm X’s revolutionary views made him more enemies than fans.
For Martin Luther King Jr, the 1960s saw him rise from humble clergyman and preacher to the inspirational figurehead of black America that was seizing its moment to battle deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination. Thanks to his peaceful protest approach, he was winning fans across the world, but the movement was dealt a huge blow when on 4th April 1968, aged 39, he was gunned down while he was standing on a motel balcony by career criminal and known racist James Earl Ray.
Roads To Memphis provides a timeline of events leading up to King’s assassination, and explains how the lives of two very different men would tragically interconnect in Tennessee one spring evening. The film also follows the manhunt immediately after King’s death.
Based on the book Hellhound On His Trail: The Stalking Of Martin Luther King And The International Hunt For His Assassin, Road To Memphis uncovers King’s last months and follows the hunt for Ray… a hunt that would end at Heathrow Airport.
