THE STORY – Documentarian Sam Pollard chronicles the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and its extraordinary owners, Walter and Loree Bailey.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Sam Pollard (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 87 Minutes
Sometimes a single moment can shape history. But what if it’s a history unbeknownst to many out there? For acclaimed documentarian Sam Pollard, the day of Martin Luther King. Jr.’s assassination was the launching pad for his latest feature, “The Lorraine.” The tragic death of one of this country’s most important civil rights leaders cast a large shadow over what was once a beacon of community. This beloved location, stained with the death of someone whose presence was so immeasurable, felt almost impossible to escape. Yet, with time, it was possible, and Pollard now shines a light on the past, present, and future of this site, as “The Lorraine” is a touching tribute to the power of perseverance in the face of catastrophe.
Almost immediately, Pollard takes audiences back to the beginning, not to the inception of The Lorraine Hotel, but the love story between its founders, Walter and Loree Bailey. It’s the energy of these charismatic yet contrasting individuals that made the Lorraine Hotel the retreat it became for so many in the Black community. Pollard’s found-footage approach, featuring an array of Super 8 recordings, creates an immersive timepiece that instantly immerses viewers in a period when history was as rich as the personalities who populated the hotel. Testimonials from former guests and employees of this location, while seemingly far removed from their time there, are almost snapped back by this viable wave of nostalgia that washes over them. These interviews Pollard assembles also add a degree of mournfulness as the film slowly reaches that inevitable day in 1968.
“The Lorraine” chronicles the business’s success in the era of segregation and how its mentions in the Green Book and the Baileys’ friendliness made it the talk of Memphis. The hotel’s history did not begin with MLK. Jr.’s demise, as many Motown artists slept and created popular works of art in this location. Pollard, while giving a standard documentary-style history lesson, also ensures that Walter and Loree’s relationship drives the film’s structure, as if their love were what kept the Lorraine Hotel alive, a sentiment that seems to be shared by everyone who met them. The stories told by individuals, including the late Carolyn Bailey, the daughter of Walter and Loree, either move audiences to laughter or tears. Then Pollard shifts gears to the rise of the Civil Rights movement and MLK Jr.’s work in Memphis, which constantly brought him to the Lorraine Hotel. It’s all but a ticking time bomb as Pollard’s slow descent to this moment keeps audiences in silence. Even though it’s been almost sixty years since his passing, to hear stories of people there when MLK Jr. was killed all but leaves you breathless, especially in our current political moment that feels like we’ve only regressed as a society.
The pain that finds its way towards this retreat from the horrors of Jim Crow to the lengthy fight in the civil rights movement eventually makes an impression, especially in how it affects the Bailey family. The hotel’s eventual decline is tragic to witness, and Pollard turns the film into a hope-fueled race against time to save the establishment from financial ruin. It’s a testament to the spirit that has forever stayed with the Lorraine Hotel, with Walter and others putting in the work to transform this location into a monument that would honor not only MLK Jr. but also the entirety of the African American experience and the tribulations that have persevered. This section of “The Lorraine” may be the film’s weakest part, as Pollard delves into the more bureaucratic intricacies of the process to save the Lorraine Hotel and what it would take to turn the property into a museum. It was fascinating to see Corette Scott King’s opposition to it and the varying degrees of infighting within the movement over a project that, overall, will do more good than harm. “The Lorraine” doesn’t end as strongly as it begins. Still, its brief runtime is packed with a moving snapshot of forgotten history that underscores why the power of community can move mountains, even amid the trials we face today.
