Judas and the Black Messiah
Before the film, join us for an in-person conversation with the director Shaka King and filmmakers Louis Massiah and Terry Kay Rockefeller of Eyes on the Prize II. Moderated by Callie Crossley of GBH's Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, this panel will cover the film's subjects FBI informant Bill O'Neal and Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton.
About Judas and the Black Messiah
FBI informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons).
Hampton’s political prowess grows just as he’s falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback). Meanwhile, a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) commands?
About Shaka King
Shaka King is a filmmaker with a body of work that spans the film and television arenas. King is the director, co-writer and producer behind the Oscar-nominated feature Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya. The film, which marks his studio feature directorial debut, centers on Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal. The feature was nominated for six Academy Awards, including specific nods for King for Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture. He resides in his birthplace of Brooklyn.
About Louis Massiah
Louis Massiah is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts center that provides production workshops to community groups and emerging media makers. As an educator and institution builder, Massiah has developed production methodologies that assist first time makers author their own stories, including the Precious Places Community History project, a collection of 150 collaborative documentaries; Muslim Voices of Philadelphia; The Great Migration - A City Transformed and currently The Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets, an oral history project.
Massiah’s documentaries include The Bombing of Osage Avenue, W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices, Cecil B. Moore, two films for the Eyes on the Prize II series, A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown and is completing TCB – the Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. A MacArthur Foundation “genius award” fellow, he is currently an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
About Terry Kay Rockefeller
Terry began her documentary filmmaking career at WGBH-TV where she helped create the long-running PBS science series, NOVA. Among her other credits are episodes of Eyes on the Prize, a history of the civil rights movement, and The Great Depression, both produced at Blackside, Inc., America’s leading African-American production company.
Terry’s sister, Laura Rockefeller, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since May of 2002, Terry has worked with September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows to oppose war in response to 9/11, to protest lack of due process in the military tribunals trying those accused of the terrorist attacks, and to close Guantanamo. From 2003 to 2009, Rockefeller was a member of the board of directors of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, which works to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. She currently serves on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of national and local peace, nonviolence and social justice organizations. She also works with the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative, a collaboration between Iraqi and international NGOs to support human rights, democracy, and anti-corruption activists in Iraq. Terry has been a member of AIUSA for more than 30 years.
ABOUT CALLIE CROSSLEY
Callie Crossley is the host of the radio show and podcast Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. Her award-winning radio essays air Mondays during GBH’s Morning Edition. She also hosts Basic Black on GBH-TV, which focuses on current events impacting communities of color. Crossley is a frequent commentator on local and national television and radio programs and has been quoted in a variety of publications, including The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. She was the subject of a major feature published in the August 2021 issue of Boston Magazine.
