“It’s just an incredible story and natural for a documentary,” said Nelson, who previously worked with Lewis on the documentaries “Freedom Riders” and “Freedom Summer.”
“He’s been at the forefront of so many different things that have happened in the country in the last 55 years or so. His story is a history of the times.”
It was a group of Lewis’s closest friends who initially broached the idea of a documentary, and the congressman didn’t need much convincing. In an e-mail Lewis said he felt “very honored that the producers and the director would want to tell my story on film.”
For about two years the team worked on putting the pieces in place, securing corporate support from companies such as as Coca-Cola and Southern Co., as well as the law firm Holland and Knight and the law firm Squire Patton Boggs. But it wasn’t until Nelson, who won the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2002, signed on that the project began to take shape. And things are moving quickly. The release date is penciled in as late fall 2016.
Sources familiar with the project emphasized the “never before seen” elements of the film, including historical photos, letters and music that Lewis has accumulated over the years. The congressman, those who know him say, is quite the collector.
The film, still in the development stages, plans to span the congressman’s life, from his childhood in rural Alabama to those watershed moments as a student leader in the civil rights movement and his early days as a politician in Washington.
When asked via e-mail if the documentary would serve as a teaching tool for current activist movements like the University of Missouri’s #concernedstudent1950, Lewis wrote, “It is clear to me that today’s student movements have already learned a great deal about non-violence. Once the film is finished, if students see it as a resource in today’s struggles, it would be very gratifying.”