We decided early on to let Malcolm speak for himself, not to try to define him. Any time you do a film about a person that people have such strong feelings about you’re under a lot of pressure–pressure from both people who carry him close to their heart as well as people who have a strong negative response to him. They will tend to look at anything that’s done as suspect. At screenings, I’m getting comments that reflect the vastly different ways people feel about him. I never get agreement.
I don’t think he was in a constant state of flux. Malcolm was changing throughout his life. He was saying to us that as human beings we all change always. It’s about becoming. Here was a man who was not afraid to share with you his process of becoming a person. That made him so interesting. He made his life experience available to all of us.
They see a person who speaks honestly about a reality that hasn’t changed so much. [They are] not looking to follow him because they understand you can’t follow a dead man. But you can look at a person and learn, and I think that’s what they’re doing.
