Film and documentary on Martin Luther King’s murder mystery in the works

The movie will explore MLK's friend and advisor's quest to find his real

Joe Berlinger is set to direct and produce a documentary and film, "Slay the Dreamer," that focuses on friend to Martin Luther King, Rev. James Lawson.


 

Highly acclaimed filmmaker, Joe Berlinger, is set to direct and produce a feature documentary and film entitled Slay the Dreamer that focuses on friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, Rev. James Lawson.

According to Deadline, the two projects will focus on Lawson’s life as a civil rights leader who played a huge role in the Sanitation Workers’ Strike in Memphis where he asked King to speak to the workers before he was killed.

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Berlinger plans to approach both projects in a similar way to tell Lawson’s story.

The movie, Slay the Dreamer, will detail the advisor’s attempt to re-investigate King’s assassination. Lawson learned in 1976 that Grace Walden, the only person who saw who killed King, had been in a mental institution against her will and under a fake name, ever since King was shot eight years before. Lawson had been looking for her since the murder. Almost too out of this world to believe, she was detained for not accepting a $100,00 reward from the FBI and not signing an “affidavit” that James Earl Ray was the man she saw that killed King.

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“This is an extremely painful chapter of American history that for many remains unresolved,” Berlinger said. “In this era of accountability and racial division, I am extremely humbled at the prospect of working with Revered Lawson to shine a light on what really happened that fateful day 51 years ago.”

The film will cover significant events such as the investigation to set Walden free, and facts that hints to her belief that Ray killing King is not true.

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All of the documents pertaining to King’s assassination have been sealed for 50 years and still remain so today.

Lawson, 90, will serve as a consultant for both projects. He just joined the families of notable figures,  John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X and King requesting to re-examine their assassinations.

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