4 Little Girls is a 1997 historical documentary film about the 1963
16th Street Baptist Church bombingThe 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963, by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls...
in
Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
, USA. It was directed by
Spike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University...
and nominated for an
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for "
Best DocumentaryThe Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
".
The incident is the subject of the 1964 song "
Birmingham SundayJoan Baez/5 was a 1964 album by Joan Baez. Unlike her prior albums, Joan Baez/5 was divided evenly between contemporary work, and traditional folk material...
" by
RichardRichard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger. He was a figure in both the counterculture scene of the early- to mid-sixties as well as the budding folk rock scene of the same era....
and
Mimi FariñaMimi Baez Fariña was a singer-songwriter, and activist. She was the youngest of three daughters to a British mother, and Mexican physicist Albert Baez...
. The song was used in the opening sequence of the film, performed by Mimi's sister,
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
.
4 Little Girls premiered Wednesday, June 25, 1997 at the Guild 50th Street Theatre in New York City.
4 Little Girls is a 1997 historical documentary film about the 1963
16th Street Baptist Church bombingThe 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a racially motivated terrorist attack on September 15, 1963, by members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. The bombing of the African-American church resulted in the deaths of four girls...
in
Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
, USA. It was directed by
Spike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University...
and nominated for an
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for "
Best DocumentaryThe Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
".
The incident is the subject of the 1964 song "
Birmingham SundayJoan Baez/5 was a 1964 album by Joan Baez. Unlike her prior albums, Joan Baez/5 was divided evenly between contemporary work, and traditional folk material...
" by
RichardRichard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger. He was a figure in both the counterculture scene of the early- to mid-sixties as well as the budding folk rock scene of the same era....
and
Mimi FariñaMimi Baez Fariña was a singer-songwriter, and activist. She was the youngest of three daughters to a British mother, and Mexican physicist Albert Baez...
. The song was used in the opening sequence of the film, performed by Mimi's sister,
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
.
4 Little Girls premiered Wednesday, June 25, 1997 at the Guild 50th Street Theatre in New York City. It was produced by 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Lee’s production company, and Home Box Office (HBO).
Lee first became interested in making a movie about the Birmingham bombing as a film student at New York University in 1983. He read a New York Times Magazine article about the incident and was so moved, he wrote to Chris McNair, the father of victim Denise, asking for permission to tell her story on film. McNair politely turned down the young, aspiring filmmaker’s offer. “I was entering my first semester at N.Y.U. So my skills as a filmmaker were nonexistent, and at that time, Chris McNair was still hesitant to talk about it,” Lee said in a 1997 interview with Industry Central’s The Director’s Chair. “I believe timing is everything. So it took ten years of Chris thinking about this and ten years of myself making movies for this to come together.”
Lee also said his original plan was for the film to be a dramatic reproduction of the incident, but he later decided that format would not be the best way to tell this important story.
Box office
4 Little Girls opened in American theaters on July 9 1997 and closed on October 2 1997. It grossed $130,146 from a total of 4 theaters. In its opening weekend it earned $13,528 from a single theater, which was 10.4% of its total gross. It cost approximately $1 million to make, funded by Home Box Office (HBO).
See also