London Film Festival review - Free Angela & All Political Prisoners

To most people, Angela Davis is the afro-ed figurehead of the Civil Rights movement whose trial for murder resulted in a worldwide campaign to free her.  Director Shola Lynch’s aim for this biographical documentary is to put some meat onto the bones of this image and flesh out Davis’s story. The result is only semi-successful, but it is still a fascinating look at a strange time.

Angela Davis was an activist and academic who accidentally became the centre of a political controversy when she was appointed a professor at the University of California in 1969. You see, they made the mistake of hiring a communist as a professor of Communism. Davis was fired by the university, and became heavily involved in a campaign to free the Soledad Brothers, three African-American prisoners accused of killing a white guard. Then in August 1970, the younger brother of one of the Soledad Brothers attempted to hold a judge hostage to negotiate the release of the prisoners, resulting in a shootout which left the judge and several others dead. The guns used in this crime were all in Davis’s name, so she went into hiding and ended up on the FBI’s most wanted list. She was later found and put on trial for first degree murder. The campaign to free Angela spread across the world, with children in East Germany sending sacks of letters of support.  She was cleared of all charges in 1972.

The film goes through these events, looking at how and why Davis became radicalised, and her feelings about the strange events of 1969 to 1972. Davis, who has been reluctant to talk about this time, is interviewed extensively, and it is great to hear from the lady herself. Archive footage is well used, and some scenes are recreated, with Davis’s niece playing her.

Unfortunately the details of the case are not explored in that much detail, making the film slightly confusing. I suppose the events are confusing in themselves (the kidnap of the judge strikes me as a very strange plan), but it would have been good to hear more about the evidence for and against Davis’s involvement. It would also have been interesting to look at what Davis has done since she was freed. It is mentioned that she has continued to campaign for prison reform, but there are no details of her life post-1972. These are the things which she wishes to be known for, rather than her arrest and trial, so it seems strange to leave them out.

With these additions, this could have been the definitive portrait of one of the key female figures in the Civil Rights movement. As it is, it is an engaging examination of a time when it seemed as if American society was teetering on the edge of anarchy.