''The March'' (titled ''Martin Luther King and the March on Washington'' in the United Kingdom) is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by John Akomfrah and narrated by Denzel Washington. It is about the historic 1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

- largely remembered for Martin Luther King's famous and iconic " I Have a Dream" speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

It formed the centrepiece of a special week of programs and online events and activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the March. The film features interviews with some of the key people involved in the event: members of the inner circles of the core organizational groups such as Jack O'Dell,

Clarence B. Jones Clarence Benjamin Jones (born January 8, 1931) is an American lawyer and the former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. He is a Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at ...

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

, Norman Hill, A. Philip Randolph and

Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...

; Hollywood supporters and

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

campaigners including

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier; performing artists at the March such as

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

and

Peter Yarrow Peter Yarrow (born May 31, 1938) is an American singer and songwriter who found fame for being in the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote (with Leonard Lipton) one of the group's best known hits, " Puff, the Magic Dragon". H ...

; as well as John F. Kennedy administration official

Harris Wofford Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr. (April 9, 1926 – January 21, 2019) was an American attorney, civil rights activist, and Democratic Party politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1991 to 1995. A noted advocate of na ...

; the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

broadcaster who reported from the March,

Roger Mudd Roger Harrison Mudd (February 9, 1928 – March 9, 2021) was an American broadcast journalist who was a correspondent and anchor for CBS News and NBC News. He also worked as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was week ...

;

Clayborne Carson Clayborne Carson (born June 15, 1944) is an American academic who is a professor of history at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Since 1985, he has directed the Martin Luther King ...

, the founding director of Stanford's Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute and a participant in the March; as well as those who witnessed the march on TV and were influenced by it, including Oprah Winfrey.

Broadcast

The film had its U.S. premiere on 23 August 2013 on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and its UK premiere on BBC Two on 28 August 2013, the 50th anniversary of the original event. It was broadcast in France on 11 October 2013 on

France 3 France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services provi ...

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has an average score of 86 out of 100, based on six reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In the U.S. the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' wrote that "''The March'' is not only a timely film document, it is also properly structured as the great drama the event was". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described it as "a succinct and well-conceived documentary". Robert Bianco of ''

USA TODAY ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'' wrote, "Should be mandatory viewing." In the U.K. ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' gave the film high praise, reporting that it was "so good that it ought to be on the national curriculum" and calling it "quite possibly the best thing the BBC has created in years.". ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' called it a "supremely authoritative documentary" while ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' stated that "the success of this documentary lay in its range of different voices." The UK broadcast was nominated for a BAFTA at the

2014 British Academy Television Awards The 60th British Academy Television Awards nominations were announced on 7 April 2014. The awards ceremony sponsored by Arqiva was held on 18 May 2014 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. Winners and nominations Winners are listed ...

in the ''specialist factual'' category, losing to eventual winner " David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive".

References

External links

* *
''The March''
at the PBS website
''Martin Luther King and the March on Washington''
at the BBC Two Page {{DEFAULTSORT:March, The 2013 2013 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about the civil rights movement 2013 television films 2013 films Films directed by John Akomfrah British documentary films 2010s American films 2010s British films

Broadcast

Reception

See also

References

External links