Mumia Abu-Jamal And Filmmaker Stephen Vittoria Talk American Imperialism

Prison Radio / Nolan Edmonston

Mumia Abu-Jamal has been serving a life sentence (he was formerly Death Row) for the murder of a white policeman in Philadelphia since 1981. In that time, he's been heralded as a revolutionary and condemned as a killer, written hundreds of books and essays, sparked a massive Free Mumia movement and lent support to contemporary calls for change like Occupy Wall Street. He's also the subject of director Stephen Vittoria's (One Bright Shining Moment) newest documentary, Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal, which follows Mumia—who has always insisted he's innocent—from his early involvement with the Black Panthers to his career as a radio journalist in Philadelphia, through his current period of incarceration and his published works.

We recently spoke with Mumia and Vittoria about the film, the media, and what it means to fight for change in a modern world.

Steve, what made you want to document Mumia's life? And Mumia, how did you get involved in the project?

SV: You wake up in a country that's run by mass murderers, economic rapists, and general run-of-the-mill racists and misogynist psychopaths, and you start to look for some sanity. And for me the sanity and inspiration came from a gentleman writing from a dark, dank hole on death row in Pennsylvania. I wanted to focus on a very unfortunate but remarkable life as a journalist a writer, a historian, an author, and a revolutionary from day one. There needs to be another narrative told about the life of Mumia, because the narrative that's been told for 30 years has been an utter lie.

MAJ: We started with a little project, a book, and it migrated to a film. But as all projects, they have a life of their own. And they sometimes are greater than the imagination of either or both of the parties involved. We were going to do a work called 'Murder Incorporated.' The title does not refer to a mafia movie. It refers to LBJ who when he took over as president of the United States, looked at what was happening in the Caribbean, and told someone: "Whoa, we're running, like, Murder Incorporated down here." And it seemed like a perfect title.

But it's really a study of imperialism. And, as ever, imperialism never remains overseas. It creeps back home. It creeps back home through torture. It creeps back home through repression. It creeps back home through secret prisons. And it creeps back home through corruption of the legal system. And what we see is what we've done.

Mumia, do you consider yourself more of a writer than a revolutionary, or do the two go hand-in-hand?

MAJ: Well, I mean, it could be separated, but I think any separation is a false separation. One of the things Howard Zinn—probably one of the greatest historians of the 20th century—said, was, he feared professionalism, because professionalism was just another straitjacket. And it was the peers of his profession which tried to police the profession, so as not to offend the imperial forces in power. So, yeah, I'm a writer, but I'm a revolutionary too. And because I was part of a revolutionary organization in my youth, and part of the Ministry of Information of that organization, they taught me how to write. And they helped point me in a direction that has lasted for quite a long distance.

Courtesy Lou Jones

So how do you feel about the mainstream media?

MAJ: I am quite honestly profoundly depressed. Profoundly depressed. When I look at—it's hard for me, to look at TV news. I find myself looking at BBC, and NHK, you know, overseas news. It's more palatable in many ways. But when I look at American news, man, wow, they're pretty, they're beautiful, their teeth are sparkling like stars, and they're so nice to you. And they wanna be your friend. They're trying so hard to be your friends, they forget to tell you the news. They want to tell you how to, you know, lose inches on your butt, or to buy the latest fashion, or to see the latest movie. But damn it, they're ain't talking about what's happening in the country. And it infuriates me to watch local news these days. I find myself turning away from it more and more and more.

You've talked a lot about of the power of organization and if people organize they can make change. Over the past year or so, we've seen people focus on organization, like with Occupy Wall Street. But it seems like the small change they effect isn't really enough to have an effect on a larger scale. Do you think that change, real change is possible?

MAJ: Well, I think history has proven that when people organize, they are the only forces that can change history. I talked about media earlier, but I guess I should give a prize, instead of a bat, to PBS, who recently did a series called The Abolitionists. These were a tiny group of people, but they were extraordinary, they were deeply committed. Like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelica Grimke, and people like that. These were white and black, rich and poor, slave and free, and they created one of the most incredible movements in world history. And they changed history.

Filmmaker Stephen Vittoria, courtesy Sharon Vittoria.

Steve, now, Mumia is no longer on death row, but faces a lifetime in prison. Do you think that the "Free Mumia" movement will die down now?

SV: I think it has ramped up. Mumia had a tremendous arc in popularity and exposure in the late 90s and into the early 2000s and quite frankly it definitely receded throughout the first decade of the 21st century. I think the opposition who has been trying to silence Mumia, the fact that the DA decided not to pursue the death penalty again—I think they thought that Mumia was just going to go away. The unintended consequences have been that Mumia is writing more now than he ever has. He's been louder and tougher in his critique of the American empire and what's going on.

I think the Mumia movement has been really been ramping up now because they believe that now that they can't kill him on death row, and they can't murder Mumia, they believe they have a fairly decent chance to try to get some new people to look at this old case and realize the impropriety and the miscarriage of justice that this man has gone through. I can sense that they have new life. I don't think it's going the way the opposition thought it was going to go.

Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal, a First Run Features film, opens this Friday at Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street between Fifth Ave and University Pl (212-924-3363, cinemavillage.com).

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