Malcolm X was the first non-documentary to be shot in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, but 30 years have passed for the film to actually screen publicly in the county. The historic occasion happened on December third, at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, where Spike Lee touched down to introduce his 1992 feature. While speaking the following day, the director described the shooting of the film and the “crazy idea” to bring cameras to follow Malcom’s pilgrimage to Mecca.
He stated, “We knew that by hook or by crook we had to shoot Malcolm’s Hajj because this is where he felt he converted to true Islam. But up until that point, a movie camera had never been allowed. And by the grace of God, the grace of Allah, the highest Islamic court gave us permission, It wasn’t because of me. It was because of Malcolm X that they made that exception. They recognized who he was.” Adding, “The footage we got during Hajj was just amazing and it really gave the film that epic film that we needed, It really added so much spirituality.”
He explained how as a non-Muslim, he was unable to travel to Mecca to shoot himself, but hired a Muslim camera crew who were able to film the thousands of worshippers also undertaking their hajj pilgrimage. Lee also said how, the Warner Bros., which were releasing Malcolm X, wanted the film to be two hours long, but that he, “needed three hours to tell the whole story of the transformation Malcolm was going through.” He contacted Oliver Stone, then in post-production on JFK, also with Warners., who told him that his film was going to be three hours long. adding, “They didn’t know that me and Oliver Stone were tight!”
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