Acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard — one of cinema’s most renowned chroniclers of the Black experience in America — joins March On! for a screening and conversation on his latest documentary, The Lorraine, which made its World Premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.
The film tells the astonishing and long-overlooked story of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee — best known as the site of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But the story of The Lorraine neither started nor ended there.
Through remarkable archival footage and interviews, Pollard shines a light on Walter and Loree Bailey, who purchased the property in 1945. Travellers guided by The Green Book and popular entertainers from the local Stax Records were among those used the hotel as a haven from the strictures of segregation and Jim Crow. The Lorraine finally gives this Black cultural landmark — and the family behind it — its due.
The evening will open with welcoming remarks from Maryland State Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins
Marjuan Canady
Tony®-nominated Broadway Producer
and Multi-hyphenated Artist
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Marjuan Canady is a Tony®-nominated Broadway producer and multi-hyphenated artist whose work amplifies Black Diaspora voices across theatre, film, and children's media. A proud DC native and Caribbean-American writer, director, and producer, she is the Founder of her production company, Sepia Works and her non-profit, the Canady Foundation for the Arts,both dedicated to advancing inclusive storytelling and arts education for youth of color. Her original work has been seen on Issa Rae's Hoorae Media, Sesame Street and The Lincoln Center and The Kennedy Center. Marjuan is also the Author and CEO of the beloved children’s brand "Callaloo Kids", which promotes cultural literacy through books, animation, and live performance. Canady's Co-Producing Broadway credits include "Purple Rain", Alicia Keys’ "Hell’s Kitchen", "The Wiz", and "Death of a Salesman". She is currently an Artist in Residence at Eaton DC, a Folger Shakespeare Library Fellow and a Docs In Progress Fellow. A passionate educator and advocate for creative equity, Marjuan was named a “Woman to Watch on Broadway” in 2023. Marjuan is a graduate of The Duke Ellington School of the Arts and holds her B.A. in Theatre Performance and African/African-American Studies from Fordham University and her M.A. in Arts Politics from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
She currently serves as Associate Professor of Theatre and Film at Montgomery College in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.
Sam Pollard
Filmmaker
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Sam Pollard's professional accomplishments as a feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director span almost thirty years. He served as Executive Producer on the documentary Brother Outsider, Official Selection 2003 Sundance Film Festival. His first assignment as a documentary producer came in 1989 for Henry Hampton's Blackside production Eyes On The Prize II: America at the Racial Crosswords. For one of his episodes in this series, he received an Emmy. Eight years later, he returned to Blackside as Co-Executive Producer/Producer of Hampton's last documentary series I'll Make Me A World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community. For the series, Mr. Pollard received The George Peabody Award. Between 1990 and 2000, Mr. Pollard edited a number of Spike Lee's films: Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, Bamboozled. As well, Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee co-produced a couple of documentary productions for the small and big screen: Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson, a biographical sketch for HBO for which Mr. Pollard received an Emmy, and Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1965 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Mr. Pollard began this journey in 1972 as an apprentice in a WNET-sponsored film-training workshop. Under the tutelage of a number of veterans in independent filmmaking, he spent the remainder of the 1970s polishing his editing skills on everything from celebrity profiles to Dateline: Israel, a film series about the history of Jerusalem. His feature experience as an editor started in the mid- 1970s with films like Just Crazy About Horses, Body and Soul, Private Resort and Style Wars. In between films, throughout the 1980s, he edited for the highly acclaimed children's programs NBC's Vegetable Soup and The Children's Television Workshop's 3-2-1-Contact for which he received two Emmys. In the early 1990s, there was Fires In The Mirror, a performance art film directed by George Wolfe, starring Anna Deveare Smith. In 1993, he produced for The American Experience a documentary called, Goin' Back to T-Town, about life in a black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma during legal segregation. From time to time, he serves on advisory committees for the National Endowment for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Arts; or the Independent Television Service (ITVS).
Delegate Jheanelle K. Wilkins
20th Legislative District
Maryland
House of Delegates
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Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins proudly represents the 20th Legislative District in the Maryland House of Delegates. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she is dedicated to policy change that makes a
difference in people’s lives. Delegate Wilkins serves as the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, overseeing more than $50 billion in state revenues and leading state policy on early
childhood education, K-12 education, child care access, and the state’s casino and gaming industry. She previously chaired the Subcommittee on Election Law, where she led the House in passing election policy and expanding voter access, including passing Maryland’s permanent mail-in ballot list, voting access for incarcerated individuals, and expansion of early voting.
Delegate Wilkins is the immediate past Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, the largest Black Caucus in the nation. She also served as Parliamentarian of the Maryland House of
Delegates, ensuring efficient, fair, and orderly procedures as the House conducted the business of the State.
Delegate Wilkins has championed and successfully passed legislation addressing with racial profiling and justice reform, maternal health, and increasing educational outcomes for all
students.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Delaware and a Master of
Public Administration in Social Policy from the American University.
Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center, Theatre 1
7995 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910
