A Huey P. Newton Story Catch the World Premiere on Cable Television's Black Starz! Channel. Starring Roger Guenveur Smith and Directed by Spike Lee. BLACK STARZ! will present the compelling and controversial portrait of a man who was loved and admired, feared and hated in the world premiere of A Huey P. Newton Story, on Monday, June 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Written, created by and starring Roger Guenveur Smith, A Huey P. Newton Story is directed by celebrated helmer Spike Lee and produced in association with the Public Broadcasting Service and African Heritage Network. "A Huey P. Newton Story is a remarkable production about an extraordinary man whose words still speak profoundly to us today," said Robert Leighton, president of Starz Encore Entertainment. "It's a story that has never been fully told; it's a controversial story and for many a painful, edgy story. Spike Lee and Roger Guenveur Smith tell it like no one else can. BLACK STARZ! is proud to bring this must-see film to our viewers." A Huey P. Newton Story is a virtuosic and intimate portrait of Huey P. Newton, the late co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Adapted from Smith's Obie Award winning off-Broadway solo performance of the same name, Lee brings the play from the stage to the screen as only he could. Shot before a live audience in November 2000, Lee uses his signature mixture of film and archival footage, to capture Newton's "inner mind." The film is complemented by a musical score of period material and original compositions from sound designer Marc Anthony Thompson who received an Obie and Audelco Award for his work and features actor/composer and Grammy Award winner Branford Marsalis. A Huey P. Newton Story reunites some of Spike Lee's long time collaborators. The film marks Guenveur Smith's seventh film collaboration with Lee, including such notable movies as Summer of Sam, Get On the Bus, Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing. The director of photography is Ellen Kuras' (Unzipped, I Shot Andy Warhol, The Mod Squad) fourth production (Bamboozled, Summer of Sam, Four Little Girls) for Lee. Wynn Thomas (Wag the Dog, Analyze This, A Bronx Tale) is production designer and also served in the same role on Lee's groundbreaking film She's Gotta Have It, as well as School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn and He Got Game. The play, which was drawn largely from Huey's own words, garnered two Drama Desk nominations, the Helen Hayes Award, two Obie Awards, two AUDELCO Awards and three NAACP Awards. Guenveur Smith was granted exclusive access to the archives of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. A Huey P. Newton Story has toured internationally to great popular and critical acclaim. Among the many prestigious institutions which have presented the play are: the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York; the Actors Theatre of Louisville; Yale Repertory Theatre; Center Stage, Baltimore; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Schomburg Center, Harlem; and the Barbican Centre in London. Additional playdates for A Huey P. Newton Story on BLACK STARZ! include, 8 p.m. ET/PT Saturday, June 23 and 11:40 p.m. ET/PT Wednesday, June 27. The film will have subsequent broadcasts on PBS and African Heritage Network. Click here to go to Urban Mozaik Magazine (www.multiculturalmagazine.com) This website: Copyright © 2000 Studio Q Int'l Inc / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.