Judas and the Black Messiah
Director Shaka King

By Iain Blair

Director Shaka King has been getting a lot of attention for his powerful and timely debut film, Judas and the Black Messiah. In fact, he picked up two Oscar nominations for his efforts, one for his role as producer (Best Picture) and one for writing (Best Original Screenplay).

Set in the late 1960s and inspired by true events, Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black college student whose community activism brought him to the attention of the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover. When Hampton became chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, the FBI placed him on its “Agitator” index. Simultaneously, the FBI planted an informant, William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), into the ranks of the Black Panthers to track Hampton’s messaging and movements. In 1969, the FBI assassinated him. He was 21.

The film’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes DP Sean Bobbitt, BSC, editor Kristan Sprague, supervising sound editor Rich Bologna and re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay, CAS. I spoke with King, whose credits include Random Acts of Flyness for HBO and People of Earth for TBS, about his work on the film and his self-declared love of post.

What did DP Sean Bobbitt bring to the mix?
He brought so much — an incredible eye, great attention to detail and specificity, and an incredible understanding of light and color, as well as of motion and performance. He’s a storyteller in his own right, and we complemented each other in many ways, both in our aesthetic approach and temperament, and in not being wasteful, but economical and purposeful, in our decision-making. We shot on the ARRI Alexa LS with the LS lenses, and we all did a lot of scouting and archival research to help with the shot list.

Tell us about post. Where did you do it?
All at Company 3 in New York, except for the sound, which we did at the Warner Bros. stage, also in New York, where I’m based. I love every part of post, especially as it’s your final rewrite, and you get to cherry-pick the best moments from the shoot. You also get to try stuff you’d never have thought of at the moment and reshape everything, from the overall narrative to a tiny moment in a scene.

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