4 Little Girls

Director: Spike Lee

1997 / 102min / 35mm

Lee sifts through the wreckage of one of the most heinous acts of domestic terrorism in American history, the September 15th, 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which resulted in the deaths of four Black Sunday school students between the ages of 11 and 14. Reviewing the facts of the Klan-affiliated atrocity, as well as the too-brief biographies of its victims, Lee’s profound and poignant documentary gives a human face to the unbearable cost of political violence and bigotry. “Immensely dignified and moving… [Lee’s] straightforward documentary style loses none of his usual clarity and fire.”—The New York Times

“This offering deals specifically with Black life and Alabama. The church bombing depicted in 4 Little Girls by Lee is a turning point in modern American history. This event would have marked Dial deeply, but it was consistent with the world he knew—a world of devastating White supremacy and deadly homegrown terrorism.” —Greg de Cuir Jr

35mm print courtesy of the Academy Film Archives