UB Film Spotlight: Preview ‘One Night In Miami…’ | Available Friday

One Night In Miami… | Amazon Studios
Available This Friday January 15th

On the evening of February 25, 1964, four icons of sports, entertainment and activism celebrated
one of the greatest upsets in boxing history in a modest motel room in Miami. After claiming the World
Heavyweight title for the first time, Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) — who would soon change his name to
Muhammad Ali — got together with three friends: human rights activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir),
music superstar Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and football legend and emerging action-movie hero Jim
Brown (Aldis Hodge).

One Night In Miami… is a fictional imagining of the historic night these towering figures spent
together. Unbeknownst to the others, Malcolm X, who is about to embark on a bold new undertaking that
will put him in grave personal danger, has arranged the gathering in the hope of winning Clay’s support. As the evening progresses in surprising ways, the four men engage in passionate debate about their roles as celebrities and leaders at a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

Directed by Regina King and written by Kemp Powers based on his award-winning play, One
Night In Miami… is set on the precipice of the momentous political and cultural upheaval of the 1960s.
More than 50 years later, these trailblazers’ conversations — about racial injustice, what it means to be
successful as a person of color and the social responsibilities that come with that success — still resonate.

One Night In Miami… also stars Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Beau Bridges
and Lance Reddick. The producers are Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder and Jody Klein. Executive
producers are Regina King, Kemp Powers, Paul O. Davis and Chris Harding. The director of
photography is Tami Reiker. Production design is by Barry Robison. Costume designer is Francine
Jamison-Tanchuck. The film is edited by Tariq Anwar. Music is by Terence Blanchard.

Sam Cooke’s song “A Change Is Gonna Come” emerged as a civil rights anthem after its release
in 1964 and has taken on renewed significance in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
“‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ remains a powerhouse hit today because we are still waiting on a change to
come,” says Hodge. “Sam Cooke was speaking directly to what we dealt with then and, of course, what
we’re still dealing with today.”

Cooke performed the song live on-camera only once, on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson.” Although the tape of that show has been lost, the performance was recreated for the film with
Odom at the microphone. “The entire set went quiet when Leslie started singing the song for that scene,”
says Klein. “When he finished, people were in tears.”

One Night In Miami… also features the original song “Speak Now,” written by Odom and Sam
Ashworth. Sung by Odom, in his natural voice, accompanied by only acoustic guitar, organ and percussion,
the song builds from almost a whisper to a rousing call-and-response final chorus. Like the film, “Speak
Now,” which plays over the main titles and end credit crawl, is an inspiring call to action that acknowledges
the struggles of the past and the present as well as the need to keep working toward a more just future.
Featuring the lyrics:

“Listen, listen,
To the message of hope in the whispers of ghosts
Listen, listen, listen
For the children will grow on the seeds that we sow”

Odom says “Speak Now” was inevitably influenced by “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

KEY EVENTS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN RELATION
TO ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…

August 28, 1955 – Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American, is lynched in Mississippi after being
accused of offending a white woman in her family’s grocery store. His killers were later acquitted.

December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama.

September 4, 1957 – Nine Black students attempting to start classes at all-white Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas, are met by national guardsmen and a threatening mob.

September 15, 1963 – Four young girls are killed and many other congregants injured when a bomb
explodes at the predominantly Black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

February 25, 1964 – After winning the Heavyweight Championship, Cassius Clay spends an evening
with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown at the Hampton House in Overtown, Florida.

March 6, 1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announces Clay has changed his name to
Muhammad Ali.

March 8, 1964 – Malcolm X announces his split with the Nation of Islam and his plans to organize a Black
nationalist group and collaborate with other civil rights leaders.

July 2, 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

December 11, 1964 – Sam Cooke is shot and killed in Los Angeles under suspicious circumstances.
Hundreds of thousands of fans in L.A. and Chicago take to the streets to mourn his passing.

February 21, 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.

March 21, 1965 – Two weeks after “Bloody Sunday,” when 600 marchers (including a 25-year-old John
Lewis) are attacked by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, Martin Luther King Jr. leads
2,000 protestors on a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery.

August 6, 1965 – Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

April 28, 1967 – Ali refuses induction into the U.S. military because of his objections to the Vietnam War.
As a result he is stripped of his championship title, banned from boxing and sentenced to five years in
prison. Four years later the Supreme Court overturns his conviction in an 8-0 decision.

April 4, 1968 – King is assassinated in Memphis.

One Night In Miami… is a snapshot of a pivotal moment in African-American history that has
far broader implications for society at large, observes Powers. “The story is unapologetically Black, but it’s
also universal,” he says. “I don’t think you have to be Black to understand what these men were going
through. And I don’t think you have to be a man to understand what they were going through.”
He adds that he hopes the film gives young people fighting for equality today some insight into the
roots of the movement. “In some ways I wrote this for my 19-year-old self,” says Powers. “I wish that I had
been aware of just how much the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Nationalism movement was a youth movement that was being done by people no older than I was at the time. That’s really important.”

For King, One Night In Miami… is a reminder that despite their mythic status and tremendous
achievements, Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown were human beings with their own
dreams, ambitions, fears and insecurities. “Throughout the process of making this film I realized that in the
past I’ve been guilty of looking at them as deities and forgetting to look at them as men first,” says the
director. “And it made me realize what a huge amount of pressure that puts on a person, and how incredible it was that they were able to navigate so successfully with all of those expectations put on them.”

Available to Stream this Friday January 15th via Amazon Prime | UB Preview Clip: In My Own Words”