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Sunday, June 14
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

641 D St NW, Washington, DC 20004

for all screenings

The Lorraine

Director

Sam Pollard

Executive Producers

Alvin Hall, Joe Wemple, Robert Gordon, Juleyka Lantigua, Peter Kenney, Rick Brookwell, Josh Braun, Thomas Campbell Jackson, Penny B. Jackson

Producers

Dan Braun, Joe Wemple, Ben Braun

This is the first feature-length documentary about the iconic Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, and its owners, Walter and Loree Bailey. A safe haven for African Americans traveling during segregation and Jim Crow laws in the United States, the Lorraine is most widely remembered for one horrific event: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony outside Room 306.

But the story of the Lorraine is far greater than that one tragic day. This documentary captures the astonishing and inspiring story of an enterprising Black couple’s pursuit of the American Dream, told through the voices of those who lived it. Their purchase of the motel in 1945 laid the foundation for a hub of social, political, and creative power, making the Lorraine a cradle of innovation and community-building. Civil rights demonstrations were planned there. Musical hits were written there. The film captures it all, including the Black community’s determined effort decades later to save the building, preserving both the history that unfolded there and the powerful symbolism it continues to embody.

Sam Pollard

Sam Pollard

Director, The Lorraine

Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television editor, documentary producer, and director. In 2022 and 2023, he completed LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, which he co-directed with Geeta Gandbhir, as well as the two-part documentary BILL RUSSELL: LEGEND, about the legendary Bill Russell and civil rights icon, which premiered on Netflix on February 8, 2023. That same year, he premiered MAX ROACH: THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES, co-directed with Ben Shapiro, at the SXSW Film & TV Festival. His film SOUTH TO BLACK POWER, inspired by Charles Blow’s book THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: A BLACK POWER MANIFESTO and co-directed with Llewellyn Smith, premiered on HBO in fall 2023.

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