A Conversation with Wyatt Stone, Archival Producer on “Who Killed Malcolm X ?”

Wyatt Stone, Archival Producer (photo by Johnathan Lewis)

Who Killed Malcolm X?, follows activist Abdur-Rahman Muhammad as he conducts his own investigation into the controversies and unanswered questions surrounding the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X. The six-part series, directed by Rachel Dretzin and Phil Bertelsen, pursues the widely held theory that the original investigation was botched, resulting in the wrongful conviction of two innocent men, and that the central figure in the assassination, William Bradley, was never prosecuted and continued living in plain site until his death in 2018. “I’m not going to stop until I get justice,” Muhammad says at the outset of the series. “Because the official account of who killed Malcolm X, it’s not true.” The series, which is streaming now on Netflix, includes a trove of rare and riveting archival footage. We spoke with Wyatt Stone, archival producer on the series, about his work on the project.

Footage.net: How did you get involved in archival research?

Wyatt Stone: I’ve been working within documentary films for the last eight years, focusing on archival research and clearances.  I graduated UCLA with a degree in ethnomusicology in 2011 and pursued music throughout my life before that, performing both as a solo artist and with others like Rickie Lee Jones.  I was introduced to documentary films in college by a professor and filmmaker named David Leaf who helped me get my foot in the door on my first project, “Crossfire Hurricane.”

FN: What a great project to cut your teeth on!

Yeah, working on "Crossfire Hurricane" was a real baptism by fire!  I was able to learn skills under two of the best archival minds I've ever come across: Jim McDonnell and Jessica Berman-Bogdan, and they brought me up from LA to NYC to work on the PBS series that eventually became Soundbreaking.  Jim and Jessica remain close friends and colleagues of mine to this day, and without them I wouldn't be where I am at the moment, no doubt about that!  At the end of the day, this job is really only as good as your skills not only as a researcher, but how well you connect with people who are making that research and materials available to you and those who work around you.  Jim and Jessica really taught me that early on and I've kept that with me throughout my career so far.

FN: With six episodes in the series, “Who Killed Malcolm X?” must have been an enormous archival undertaking. Was this one of the more complex projects you've worked on?

WS: It was definitely a complex project but it wasn’t necessarily because of the size of it.  We were a very small team that worked on this for a very long time.  I liken the experience of it to almost like having fought battles together and we are now veteran buddies.  The whole project could not have succeeded without supporting each and every aspect of the production and sticking together.

FN: Were you involved in the project from the outset?

WS: I was brought in very early on in the production, which was a blessing as I had a handle on what material was out there, even though that process continued throughout the project.  We had some serious budgetary restraints, but I believe we overcame them and did justice to Malcolm, showcasing some material that has been very rarely used or seen.

FN: What’s the biggest difference between the role of archive producer and archive researcher?

WS: I believe the biggest difference is the way in which the archive producer handles the budget and clearances.  As an archival researcher, you’re typically not responsible for clearances in that same way, but I have done both with both titles. Typically, that is not the case though.

FN: Were you in charge of managing the archive budget on this project?

WS: With this project I was and it was a challenge indeed, as I mentioned before. The relationships I’ve built over the years with the archives certainly helps with negotiations, but because documentaries have become so much more mainstream than they were before, the archival sources have increased their prices, so I’d hope that production companies when they are making these budgets keep that in mind, or even better bring on someone who knows the archival landscape to consult!

FN: How do you prepare for a project like this?

WS: My process varies per project, but typically I watch everything that has been done on the subject matter and refer to any of the books, sources and acknowledgements to dive into what collections might be most helpful. I also enjoy the tight knit nature of the archival world, so I often times know who worked on the previous projects and can pick their brain and vice versa.

FN: So word of mouth leads and networking are still critical elements of the archival research process?

WS: Yes, I believe word of mouth is still a huge resource, even if the word of mouth happens online.  I’m a member of several groups of archival researchers around the World and those resources are helpful beyond measure.

FN: Was this a project where the producers really wanted to go in-depth and seek out every bit of relevant material?

WS: There was a lot of pressure to find every bit of footage of Malcolm for this project, as we were basically tracing the daily movements of his last few years.  The unique thing about Malcolm, unlike someone like Dr. King, was that even though he was very interesting to the press, the fact that he was killed in 1965 meant that you really miss a big chunk of the explosion of media coverage that was saved say in the mid to late 60s, so you have to turn every stone over to see where he might have been filmed.  It took a diligence that was beyond really any other project and I’d say that even the most rare, surprising things I found ended up not in the show!

FN: Were you dealing mostly with large commercial footage providers or were smaller sources like individuals and collectors part of the mix?

WS: This project was a mixture of news sources as well as discovering small collections.  That typically is a part of my process: you start with a large net and cast it out, and you capture what you can, and then once you start getting more granular you have to explore smaller sources to tell your story.

FN: Was there a big "eureka" moment on this project where you found a really special shot?

WS: There were several!  There was an interview with one of our subjects on William Buckley’s “Firing Line” that had never been seen and we used that.  There was also a piece that WNET had done on the Nation of Islam that was thought to be lost, but we tracked it down in Indiana Universities’ archive. We were able to transfer it to 2K and it was some stunning footage that really captured what it was like to be a member of the Nation of Islam in 1964.

FN: Did these archival discoveries influence the film's narrative?

WS: Since I started quite a bit before the edit, archival was intertwined throughout the film’s narrative, which as an archival nut was a real treat!  It’s hard to separate the two within the series and that’s something I’m very proud of.

FN: How big a factor is YouTube in a research project like this?

WS: I think that YouTube is a great research resource, though it does cause problems if things are brought in from YouTube without a warning that we may not be able to find where it came from.  One of the things that it helped with for this particular project, was it led me to start exploring the Gil Noble archives, and we were able to find some of the masters within their archive that we had originally found on YouTube.

FN: How do you keep everything organized on a project of this scope?

WS: Each project is different but for this one particularly, it started with that first dive into the subject matter and trying to explore collections that I think would help.  Then once the material was gathered, for this project we used FileMaker and had a particular naming convention for materials.  At the end of the process, I think we actually logged about 10,000 assets of clips and photos, and that doesn’t include the enormous amount of FBI documents, NYPD documents, and ephemera as well.

FN: What is the biggest challenge in this sort of filmmaking?

WS: I think it goes back to starting early enough in the process so that you have a handle on your budget and also have the ability to shape the narrative. So many times you are asked to find material that simply doesn’t exist and if you start working alongside the producer beforehand, you can avoid feeling like you are failing and instead support a films direction that is realistic and creative at the same time.

FN: What's next for you?

WS: I have some great projects on the horizon that should come to the surface soon that I'm really excited to share when the time is right...but beyond that, I’m hoping to continue to work on meaningful projects like this one that makes change in the world. I’m grateful to have been a part of this and thank everyone at Ark Media who believed in me and helped shape this wonderful project that I hope finally brings justice to Malcolm’s untimely death.