The Documentary Film Origin of the Dream
Date and Time
Feb 2, 2026 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
Feb 2, 2026 6:00 pm
14th & V
The documentary film Origin of the Dream will be airing this February across the state of North Carolina on PBS (UNC TV). Among many other places, it will also screen at the famous MLK Institute at Stanford University.
The film tells the full story of King’s first ever use of the phrase “I Have a Dream,” (delivered nine months before the March on Washington), and documents startling new discoveries about how poet Langston Hughes served as the source of inspiration for King’s dream.
The fifty-six minute film features actor Danny Glover, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. William Barber II, MLK Pulitzer Prize-winner David Garrow, and the final on-camera interview given by Julian Bond before he passed away.
After spending over twelve years researching Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s trip to Rocky Mount, NC, on November 27, 1962, the full-length documentary film project about this historic visit has been completed by Distinguished Professor W. Jason Miller, Rebecca Cerese, and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Neal Hutcheson.
For more, listen to the Smithsonian podcast “King’s Speech” where Professor Miller was in conversation with Kevin Young, Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.