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Updated Jan. 10: While there is no immediate fire danger to the UCLA campus or the Archive’s collection in Santa Clarita, screenings scheduled for January 17–19 will be rescheduled out of respect for the guest speakers, staff and community members impacted by the devastation. New dates for these programs will be announced when possible. Our hearts are with the broader Los Angeles community. Please stay safe.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
U.S., 1973
New 35mm restoration!
The parallels between the story told in The Spook Who Sat by the Door and the film’s production are striking and powerful. Based on the explosive 1969 novel by Sam Greenlee, who co-wrote the screenplay, director Ivan Dixon’s pull-no-punches adaptation follows the CIA’s first Black agent (Lawrence Cook) — recruited as part of a Potemkin integration policy — from the halls of power to the streets of Chicago where he uses the agency’s own training to foment a violent Black revolution. For his part, Dixon shot the film guerrilla-style, deploying the action tropes of Blaxploitation to revolutionary ends, using their camera as a weapon in the ongoing cultural war of self-representation. The Archive is honored to present this underground classic in a new 35mm restoration.
35mm, color, 102 min. Director: Ivan Dixon. Screenwriters: Sam Greenlee, Melvin Clay. With: Lawrence Cook, Janet League, Paula Kelly.
Restored by The Library of Congress and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of The Spook Who Sat by the Door
U.S, 2011
This fascinating documentary preserves the story of one of the most stunning acts of government interference in American film history: the suppression of The Spook Who Sat by the Door. It features candid interviews with novelist and screenplay co-writer Sam Greenlee as well as several cast members (J.A. Preston, David Lemieux) and Berlie Dixon, Ivan Dixon’s widow. Screened at over 20 film festivals in America and abroad, the colorful details of how the film was financed, produced and, eventually, once it began playing to sold out theaters, suppressed, easily resonate in today’s political climate. In the article “Subverting the System: The Politics and Production of The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Christine Acham, who co-directed, edited and produced the film, writes “Federal and local governments considered it too dangerous to screen The Spook for volatile black audiences. The film relayed a powerful message of self-reliance and black power.”—Beandrea July
DCP, color, 57 min. Directors: Christine Acham, Clifford Ward. With: Sam Greenlee, Berlie Dixon, J.A. Preston, David Lemieux, Paul Butler, Todd Boyd, Melvin Clay, Ed Guerrero, Janet League.
