A New Documentary on The Spook Who Sat by the Door

"Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door" is an independent documentary on the controversial and FBI repressed 1973 black film "The Spook Who Sat By the Door." Through interviews with author Sam Greenlee, Berlie Dixon (widow of director Ivan Dixon), Academy Award®-winning editor Michael Kahn, Melvin Van Peebles, and many others, "Infiltrating Hollywood" tells the story of "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" from its inception as a novel to the film's release and repression. Today "The Spook" is widely hailed as a cult classic and one of the most important underground black productions of the era.



Although often satirical in presentation, the film was still considered too dangerous for black consumption. In the era of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO, exhibitors reported that the FBI and local police demanded the cancellation of screenings and most copies of the film were destroyed. The film exists today because director Ivan Dixon hid the masters of "The Spook" in a film vault under a pseudonym. "Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door" reclaims the lost history of the film and the people behind its powerful story. (57 minutes, 2011)