Black Saviors

Logline: Dr. John W.V. Cordice Jr. saved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life before he became the American icon we know today. Now, his home needs a pulse

Synopsis: A 21-minute short documentary about Black redemption and Black economic empowerment framed through a senior director at a pharmaceutical company restoring the childhood home of a doctor who performed life-saving surgery on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while she tirelessly works on a COVID-19 vaccine.

  • Landon Terrell Bost
    Director
  • Landon Terrell Bost
    Producer
  • Esther Abrami
    Music
  • RalphReal
    Music
  • Asher Fulero
    Music
  • TrackTribe
    Music
  • Ofshane
    Music
  • Aakash Gandhi
    Music
  • Andre D. Vann
    Archival
  • Discover Durham
    Archival
  • Beverly Washington Jones
    Archival
  • Institute of the Black World 21st Century
    Archival
  • N.C. Central University
    Archival
  • NYC Health + Hospitals
    Archival
  • Mertie Snead
    Archival
  • Preservation Durham
    Archival
  • The Carolina Times via Digital NC
    Archival
  • William McLaughlin Jr.
    Archival
  • Mertie Snead
    Key Cast
  • William McLaughlinJr.
    Key Cast
  • Howard T. Williams, Jr.
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Sociocultural, African American film, Inspiring, Documentary, Short documentary
  • Runtime:
    21 minutes 43 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 4, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DSLR
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • African Film Festival Atlanta 2021
    Atlanta
    United States
    African Film Festival Atlanta 2021 Official Selection
  • 12th Annual Charlotte Black Film Festival
    Charlotte, North Carolina
    United States
    Charlotte premiere
    12th Annual Charlotte Black Film Festival Official Selection
Director Biography - Landon Terrell Bost

Landon Bost is a May 2021 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Bost majored in Journalism, photo and video, and Hispanics Linguistics with a minor in Social and Economic Justice. Bost completed his first documentary film “Black Saviors” in his senior capstone at UNC. The film chronicles a senior director at a pharmaceutical company restoring the childhood home of a surgeon who performed life-saving surgery on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while she tirelessly works on a COVID-19 vaccine. The film’s world premiere, outside of UNC-Chapel Hill, was at the African Film Festival Atlanta 2021, an official selection from over 125 submissions from 30 different countries.
Bost began his storytelling career as a sports journalist covering Division I college athletics in North Carolina’s Triangle Area. He was selected to the 28th class of the Sports Journalism Institute and worked with the USA TODAY Network South Region as a sports writer.
In addition to his film pursuits, Bost works full-time as a photographer and videographer at the Naples Daily News in Florida. Bost earned Associated Press Sports Editors top-10 feature photo honors in Divison C in the 2020 contest.
Bost is a native of Harrisburg, N.C., outside of Charlotte. He scored 26 points in his first appearance in the Duke Media Game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Bost enjoys working out, anything related to basketball and cooking in his free time. Bost displays portfolio his portfolio on www.landonbost.com.

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Director Statement

Focusing on the past, and having a dialogue that should have been had 20 years ago, is like trying to untick a bomb that already exploded. A message that an N.C. Central University professor gave me that changed my complete vision for “Black Saviors.” Mertie Snead, the protagonist in the film, is my aunt. Two years before she bought the Cordice home and we started filming, she would drive me around Hayti, Durham’s historic African American community, and show me how things used to be when she was at NCCU in the early 80s. How a pharmacy used to be one this corner, or a Black business school was here and she could remember a small market there. Snead didn’t see these places as old relics of the past that stood barren, fallen, or conquered, but as assets for the future saying, “Oh! This sport would be a great spot for a café for students or this abandoned building downtown is perfect for a jazz club.” Always with an eye toward the future, because we both knew what this community was before Urban Renewal and the construction of NC-147 destroyed numerous Black businesses and displaced hundreds of families. A similar story you can find in every mid-sized to major city in the U.S. Framing a community’s story through its demise does nothing for the community or the viewer. Focusing on Snead restoring the home of a surgeon who saved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a redeeming story. Snead is an afrofuturist and so is Black Saviors. Every African American can’t buy a home or start a business in a Black neighborhood, but we can all do things to create a better world for African Americans. I made a conscious decision not to interview or highlight any non-Black person in the film, not because I didn’t think interviewing a white investor in Hayti wouldn’t add a good perspective, but because I wanted this to be a film for African Americans about an issue in the Black community, that is made by and only features African Americans. “Black Saviors” is a documentary about Black redemption and Black economic empowerment. The goal of the film is not just for the viewer to learn a little-known fact about a famous world leader but to feel inspired and go create a better world for African Americans.

Landon T. Bost
March 3, 2022