MICHAEL X: HUSTLER, REVOLUTIONARY, OUTLAW

MICHAEL X: HUSTLER, REVOLUTIONARY, OUTLAW – 90 MIN FEATURE - BBC STUDIOS / SKY DOCS – DIRECTOR: JAMES VAN DER POOL

SHORTLISTED: GRIERSON DOCUMENTARY AWARDS: BEST HISTORY DOCUMENTARY 2022

Michael X_Hustler_Revolutionary_Outlaw  (1x90”)

Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW. A Sky Original documentary produced by BBC Studios in association with Sky Studios.

TX: October 2021 

This is the untold story of the rise and fall of Michael X otherwise known as Michael De Freitas or Michael Abdul Malik - a man once heralded as the UK’s answer to Malcolm X who spent the end of his days on death row, and eventually executed by signed order of the Queen. 

The feature length documentary directed by James Van der pool (The Surgeon’s Cut, Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, Black and British) will provide a chance to re-evaluate this divisive historical figure, a man who lived multiple lives in one lifetime and knew everyone – from Muhammad Ali to William Burroughs, Malcom X to John Lennon - but few today have heard of him. 

This intimate portrait of Michael’s life and times will explore a defining period of modern British history. Reflecting all sides of the story - with insider testimony from those who knew him, unseen archive and dramatic reconstruction - the audience will be taken from Michael’s childhood in Trinidad, to the genesis of the British Black Power Movement and the intoxicating days of counterculture and Notting Hill Carnival, before returning to the Caribbean where Michael was tried and convicted of murder. 

The Three Lives of Michael X is a Sky Original documentary produced by BBC Studios’ Documentary Unit in association with Sky Studios and commissioned for Sky by Zai Bennett, Sky’s Managing Director of Content and Poppy Dixon, Director of Documentaries and Factual.