"The Lorraine," a documentary that examines the history and significance of the famed Memphis hotel, a haven for Black travelers and artists before being branded as the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will be the opening night movie for the 2026 Indie Memphis Film Festival.
The film will screen Nov. 5 at the Orpheum's Halloran Centre at 225 South Main Street.
Director Sam Pollard — an Oscar nominee for his work with Spike Lee — and producer Alvin Hall will be present to discuss the film, along with representatives of the National Civil Rights Museum, the institution that opened on the Lorraine Motel site in 1991, incorporating part of the "sacred ground" of the hotel where King was murdered, into its construction and design.
"The Lorraine" premiered in June at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York. A film of national as well as local interest, it represents an auspicious opening-night booking for Indie Memphis, which in its third decade is seeking to re-establish itself as a significant arts event after taking a hiatus in 2025, to reorganize its leadership and finances.
"This year, we are fiercely re-dedicating Indie Memphis to the grit and ingenuity of American independent film, turning our focus primarily toward vibrant regional storytelling," said Brandon Harris, artistic director for Indie Memphis. "We couldn't have found a more appropriate opening salvo than 'The Lorraine.'"
According to its production team, "The Lorraine" uses archival footage, new interviews and new Memphis footage to tell "the astonishing, inspiring story" of the motel and its "charismatic owners," Walter and Loree Bailey, who starting in 1945 transformed the building at 450 Mulberry into a "Green Book"-recommended refuge for Black travelers.
"In the heart of Memphis, Walter and Loree Bailey’s Lorraine Motel was both a thriving hub of Black entrepreneurship and a destination for the greatest musicians of the 20th century — a place where Civil Rights demonstrations were planned, musical hits were written, and Black and white artists created history together," the film's promotional material states.
"A rare, black-owned establishment, The Lorraine served as a safe haven and sanctuary for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era. Then, on April 4, 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. outside Room 306 cleaved that history in two, and the world forgot everything else... In the shadow of this horrific event, the full story of The Lorraine remained obscured."
According to Harris, "few filmmakers working today" are "better equipped to capture the profound historical and spiritual weight of Memphis" than Pollard, the director of "The Lorraine."
The Harlem-born Pollard has been a filmmaker for over half a century. He was an editor on the milestone Black independent shocker "Ganja & Hess" (1973) and on numerous Spike Lee movies (including "Jungle Fever" and "Bamboozled"), while also directing episodes of the PBS series "Eyes on the Prize" and documentary features about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., jazz drummer Max Roach and other important figures. (In a bit of symmetry, he was co-director of "Mr. SOUL!," a documentary about a groundbreaking New York Black arts-and-culture television program that was the Indie Mempjhis opening night feature at the Halloran in 2018.)
In 1997, Lee and Pollard, as co-producers, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for "4 Little Girls," about the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African-American girls, ages 11 to 14. In 2010, Pollard won an Emmy for his work as an editor on "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama," an HBO documentary.
The Indie Memphis Film Festival will be held Nov. 5-8 in the South Main Arts District, with screenings at the Halloran and the Malco Powerhouse Cinema (with post-fest screenings Nov. 9-10 at the Malco Studio on the Square). Festival passes are available to purchase at indiememphis.com.
The full list of films will be revealed at 6 p.m. Sept. 30 during a public "preview party" the new Metal Museum in Overton Park. (Occupying the former Memphis College of Art, the Metal Museum opens Sept. 5.) Tickets for the screening of "The Lorraine" and all other screenings go on sale that night. (Also revealed that night will be the start time for "The Lorraine" and other opening-night activities.)
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'The Lorraine' documentary to open Indie Memphis Film Festival
