Screening Features Rare, Historical Lost Footage

Gateway Community College (GCC) hosted Feb. 11 a special screening of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: A Personal Portrait, featuring lost footage from a film of Dr.  Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta in their Atlanta home. The footage, from December of 1965, was filmed by North Haven resident and Emmy Award winning cinematographer George Silano.

Silano, who addressed a crowded room of students, faculty and staff, said the exclusive footage was taken during an interview with Dr. King over the course of a week just after he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and sat unused for decades until Silano—the only surviving member of the original film crew originally hired by producer Arnold Michaelis—decided to look for it; a pursuit that led him to the University of Georgia where the film had been archived after Michaelis’ death in 1997.

The rarely seen, 60 minute interview shows Dr. King in a more intimate light, speaking candidly about his position, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, and in conversation with his wife Coretta.

Silano premiered the film held a year ago at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton and has had limited public viewings since.
 
The screening was made possible through the generosity of the  Esther Hazeltine Schivonne Cultural Fund and the GCC Campus Activities Board.