Category: Film Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me @ SFJFF

Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me @ SFJFF


July 29, 2018

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will screen Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me, a feature length documentary about the Rat Packer.

"At the age of three his immense talent was already on display as he sang and tap danced his way across the country performing with his father and godfather. In the 1950s, he notoriously dated Hollywood star Kim Novak prompting Columbia Pictures bigwig Harry Cohn to order him to stick to Black women. Following a serious car accident in which he lost an eye, Davis converted to Judaism. In the 1960s, the only African American member of the legendary Rat Pack, he supported John F. Kennedy's candidacy, marched in Selma with Martin Luther King and became a prominent activist in the civil rights movement. And then in 1972 he shocked the country by supporting Richard Nixon for reelection, giving him a famous hug on stage during the Republican convention.

It's hard to imagine a more talented and groundbreaking performer who led a more complicated and contradictory life than Davis. He did not shy away from controversy and was not afraid to use his name and talent for a good cause. Featuring excerpts from his exhilarating performances and interviews with the likes of Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis and Whoopi Goldberg, director Sam Pollard's riveting documentary unpacks the apparent contradictions and presents a very full and very human portrait of this complex, courageous and conflicted man."

429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
USA
(415) 621-6120

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