The ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr, in 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Leonid Rozhetskin, David Arquette, and L+E Productions got some great news this week when his Sundance movie, Hamlet 2, was bought for $10 million making it one of the biggest deals at the festival ever! Congrats! Via Pop Sugar.

Focus Gets “Hamlet 2? for $10 Million – highest Acquisition ever achieved at Sundance!

Andrew Fleming’s “Hamlet 2” has been acquired by Focus Features in a $10 million worldwide deal swiftly sealed within 12 hours of the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by L+E Pictures‘ Eric Eisner & Leonid Rozhetskin and Aaron Ryder, from an original script by Fleming and Pam Brady. In the words of a description, “In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Cast joining Coogan include David Arquette, Melonie Diaz, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and Elisabeth Shue (appearing as herself). Calling the film “an amazing New Year’s present,” in a statement, Focus’ James Schamus and Andrew Karpen, added, “We can’t wait to share this riotously inventive movie with the whole world.” [Eugene Hernandez] Via indieWIRE

More information on the Hamlet 2 sale made at Sundance

Sundance BuzzCheck™: The festival’s top seller, ‘Hamlet 2′ January 24th, 2008 From EW.com Popwatch Blog The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stop Hamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours. Read the whole post Sundance, Day 7: Why Hamlet 2 Is Hot, Hot, Hot From E! Online, Reel Girl Blog Read the whole post. ‘Hamlet 2′ is big buy at Sundance Fest January 24th, 2008 From The Miami Herald By Ryan Pearson Read the whole story. Studios cautiously open their wallets for Sundance films

 

 

Read the whole story. Trio of deals wakes up Sundance ‘Hamlet 2,’ ‘Henry Poole’ and ‘Choke’ reap big sales From The Hollywood Reporter By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein Read the whole story.

PRINCELY SUM NETS ‘HAMLET’From The New York Post By Lou Lumenick

 

A late entry to the Sundance program, “Hamlet 2,? produced by Leonid Rozhetskin, was described by several distributors as the first indie this year to have commercial crossover possibilities like “Little Miss Sunshine.”Read the whole story.What a piece of workFrom The Hollywood Reporter, Risky Biz Blog By Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik

 

 

Throughout Sundance, distributors have been asking “Indie hit, wherefore art thou?”

The answer may have come Monday evening with “Hamlet 2,” Andrew Fleming’s frequently hilarious story of an overly dramatic high school drama teacher (played by Steve Coogan) who attempts to salvage his department by putting on a controversial musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play. Produced by Leonid Rozhetskin

The late addition to the fest had intermitent lulls, but it also had every top film exec unreservedly gushing outside the Library screening room. The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Focus, ThinkFilm, Paramount Vantage and other execs all openly agreeing about how funny it was.

“I heard before I came that it needed a lot of work, but it doesn’t need that much work,” said one buyer. Others said some judicious cutting could bring it big success. At a “Hamlet” dinner afterwards, veteran studio director Fleming (”Threesome,” “Nancy Drew”) said he’d be open to working with a distributor on a refined edit, despite saying he avoided the development process initially. “It”s nothing I haven’t been through before,” he deadpanned.

The film’s satirical take on theater types, modern musicals, high school and high school movies like “Dangerous Minds” resonated with the audience, as did top notch performances by Coogan and Catherine Keener (pictured above), Amy Poehler and the amazing newcomer Skyler Astin, who plays a budding drama student many will recognize.

(Full disclosure: after seeking out Astin to speak with him at the dinner, I realized he currently stars in the Tony-winning best musical “Spring Awakening,” co-produced by an old friend, Amanda Dubois. — Gregg Goldstein)

“Hamlet 2? came together thanks to producers Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin as well as “Little Miss Sunshine” producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.” Editors were still cutting the movie as late as December with the possibility that it wouldn”t have made into the festival.

But the filmmakers finished it and got it into the festival just under the wire, not unlike the way the fall’s big indie hit, “Juno,” snuck into Telluride at the last minute.

CAA is selling the title, and top distributors began gathering at their Park City house immediately after the film ‘Hamlet 2′ Sells After All-Night Bidding War From The Wall Street Journal By Lauren Schuker, January 22, 2008

 

 

This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.

The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone. Equal Opportunity Insults, In Five Acts From The New York Times, The Carpetbagger By David M. Halbfinger

 

 

Sundance looks to have its first unqualified hit, and a Cinderella story at that, in “Hamlet 2.” A late addition to the film festival, this bawdy romp, starring Steve Coogan as a failed actor-turned-pathetic high-school drama teacher — who stages a musical sequel to “Hamlet,” with a “sexy Jesus” Christ in a starring role — enjoyed a riotous reaction at its premiere in Park City’s library Monday night.

One of the festival’s running themes has been hope and optimism, as most evident in films about people facing down death, among them Amy Redford’s drama “The Guitar” (which didn’t wow audiences on Friday) and Mark Pellington’s lighter-hearted “Henry Poole Is Here” (which played quite well Monday afternoon and immediately drew interest from several buyers).

But “Hamlet 2,” even as it made sure to insult Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the A.C.L.U., Hollywood movies about inspiring teachers and one of its lead actresses (Elisabeth Shue), also managed to puncture the death-defying optimism that has hovered over Park City.

As the acquisition teams from Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, among others, filed out into the night – some of them, presumably, to huddle and come up with offers – the non-buying audience hung around for a quick Q-&-A with Andrew Fleming, the director of “Hamlet 2,” and several members of his cast.

Mr. Fleming said he and his writing partner, Pam Brady, had been working on the script for five years, but the idea of a “Hamlet” sequel was much more recent, and the actual play-within-the-movie was written on deadline. “It was this kind of panicked, last-minute thing – ‘let’s write some songs and put on a show,’” Mr. Fleming said. The film was produced by Leonid Rozhetskin.

In the movie Ms. Shue plays herself, oddly enough – or a version of herself that could be so smitten by Mr. Coogan that she’d lick his face (as she did again onstage, for good measure). Why’d she take the role? “I just got the script and it said ‘a famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse,’” she said. “It was hilarious and I had to do it.”

Industry watching for strike-inspired bidding wars, hot films at Sundance

 

Hamlet 2 is cited as a movie title “that could sneak up under the radar.” Produced by Leonid Rozhets

]]> http://chrisabraham.com/2008/01/25/hamlet-2-was-biggest-sale-ever-at-sundance/feed/ 0 http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/tweeterboard-is-pretty-darn-cool/ http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/tweeterboard-is-pretty-darn-cool/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:16:43 +0000 Chris Abraham http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/tweeterboard-is-pretty-darn-cool/

I spend a lot of time Twittering over at twitter.com/chrisabraham. I have journaled my first days in Berlin and my continuing experiences in Berlin on Twitter. Well, I just discovered Tweeterboard and am not surprised by the rankings. Chris Brogan, Jim Long, and Robert Scoble dominate, of course. I am not nearly as impressed by my Twitterings, alas. You can see how I get love and how I give love, too. Very intense and a little spooky. The Tweeterboard is yet another top-100 list I am not on. Tweeterboard even tracks all of the links that I have dropped into Twitter:

1. How Did Leonid Rozhetskin Get to Sundance? Finance! | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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6. Sundance Selects L+E Productions’ Hamlet II < Chris Abraham

   First posted by chrisabraham on Dec 13 2007

7. A Leonid Rozhetskin Film in Sundance | Chris Abraham

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8. Our Top 20 Favorite Memes of All Time | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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9. Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses | culture, science, technology, politics, religion, and conspiracy through a memetic lens

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11. Caught at Schneerot Bar: Libia, Kike, Frank, and Me < Chris Abraham

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12. » Follow up on Otto vs. Amazon – Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC

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13. » Paradigm shift, stage of life, or a bit of both? – Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC

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14. Catch Today’s Favorites on Memes.org! | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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15. 9/11: A Revolution in Military Affairs | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

    First posted by chrisabraham on Dec 11 2007

16. Twitter Updates for 2007-12-07 < Chris Abraham

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18. » Facebook is forgiven (sort of) – Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC

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19. Marlo Furniture is a Washington-Area Landmark and Anchor | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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20. Marlo Furniture Is a Washington Landmark < Chris Abraham

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21. Is Marlo Furniture Still a Washington Tradition? < Chris Abraham

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22. Marlo Furniture Is a Washington Landmark and Tradition | Chris Abraham

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23. Bottom Shelf Books

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24. “The Christmas Truce” – When Men Said No To War | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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25. Bank Tells Man He Owes $211 Trillion | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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26. » » I think I just opted out of Facebook Beacon – I think Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC

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27. Energy Bill 2007 Collected Resources and Assets | Memes.org Memes are Mind Viruses

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28. Chris Abraham > Because the Medium is the Message

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29. ooVoo and the Long Tease < Chris Abraham

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30. Today Was an Amazing Day (and Night) in Berlin < Chris Abraham

    First posted by chrisabraham on Dec 8 2007

]]> http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/tweeterboard-is-pretty-darn-cool/feed/ 1 http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/sundance-film-festival-selects-le-productions-hamlet-ii-in-premiers-category/ http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/sundance-film-festival-selects-le-productions-hamlet-ii-in-premiers-category/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:57:57 +0000 Chris Abraham http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/13/sundance-film-festival-selects-le-productions-hamlet-ii-in-premiers-category/

You know I have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood producer Leonid Rozhetskin. Well, it looks like Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions does a fine job of selecting scripts and projects because I got some breaking news: the Sundance Film Festival selected L+E Productions’ Hamlet II in its premiers category.

“The Sundance Film Festival nomination of Hamlet II is not up on the Sundance website, but here’s some information about the Premiers Category: To showcase the diversity of contemporary cinema, the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program offers a selection of the latest work from established directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films. This is not a competitive category. It’s L+E Production‘s first Sundance selection.” (More about Hamlet II)

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