New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Industry titans
Quincy Jones and Debbie Allen have team up as executive producers to tell 60 years of an American story through the eyes of one family who had the American dream. The award-winning doc, KING OF KINGS, helmed by Jones and Allen, is making its rounds on the film festival circuit, and an official selection of the Pan African Film Festival. PAFF is America's largest and most prestigious
Black film festival, taking place February 9-20, 2023 in Los Angeles. It attracts local, national, and international audiences as the largest
Black History Month cultural event in the nation. For more information about PAFF, visit PAFF.org.
The doc KING OF KINGS, directed by Harriet Marin Jones (no relation to
Quincy Jones), searches for the truth about her grandfather, Edward Jones. Edward Jones was a charismatic African American businessman who rose to the heights of financial and political prominence in Depression-era
Chicago before falling into oblivion.
In shaping the destiny of a city. Edward Jones could not, however, escape his skin color and racism, no matter how light-skinned he was. By exploring her family roots, European filmmaker Harriet Marin Jones uncovers more forgotten
Black History that ultimately helped to shape this country.
KING OF KINGS takes an in-depth look at the life and legacy of Edward Jones through newspaper clippings, animated sequences, pictures and various documents, as well as archive footage and countless anecdotes from family, friends, former law enforcement officials and lawmakers, retracing her grandfather's personal journey in the midst of major historical events. It took the filmmaker 10 years to do all the research and interviews, as well as find the funds to finance the film, however, in the end, Harriet Marin Jones could not have asked for a better story.
KING OF KINGS won the Audience Award at the 22nd Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) and the
Chicago Award at the 58th
Chicago International Film Festival.
SCREENING DATES AT PAFF | Showtimes
• Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 9 p.m.
• Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 4:45 p.m. (industry screening)
The screenings will be held at the Cinemark 15 Theatres, located at 4020 Marlton Ave. at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles.
KING OF KINGS | 99 minutes runtime | movie synopsis
Gangster for some, philanthropist for others, who was really Edward Jones? In the 1930s and 1940s, this descendant of slaves becomes one of the richest men in the United States thanks to the Policy business, an illegal numbers game, that ultimately became the modern state lottery, now played by millions nationwide. Known as the most famous of the Policy Kings, it's estimated that Edward Jones amassed a fortune of $25 million in the Policy business (numbers game), and re-invested and re-injected part of that money back into his community, setting an example and opening many doors in the
Black community. But in these times of segregation, his success and unfailing support to the African American community are a problem. In conflict with both the mob and the Feds, he is eventually forces into a life on the run!
Exploring the rise and fall of the most famous Policy King of all times -- Edward Jones, nicknamed the "King of Kings" -- his filmmaking granddaughter uncovers an unparalleled story, while showing the lasting repercussions of his untold story, both within her family, and for Chicago's South Side where he once embodied the American dream.
Love, success, violence, revenge, mafia, murder, betrayal, prison, kidnapping. . . Edward Jones's story holds all the best ingredients of gangster movies. Add segregation and you have a very explosive cocktail!
To view the trailer of KING OF KINGS, visit https://vimeo.com/726690570/80f992cc42
For more information about KING OF KINGS, visit https://en.kingofkings-film.com
Harriet Marin Jones is a writer, director and producer. After studying at Loyola University in
Chicago and American University in Washington, D.C. where she received a bachelor's degree in visual media and voted Best Student in the department, she pursued her master's degree in Cinema Studies at New York University. During her studies, Jones wrote and directed a dozen short films that won numerous awards. She started her career as an assistant director on feature films in the United States and France, and began simultaneously evaluating scripts for two major French broadcasters - that is, TF1 and France 3. Throughout her career, Jones has written and directed two high-budgets short films, followed by her first feature film, distributed by Gaumont. In addition, she has worked as a script doctor; directed a play by Ray Cooney; and co-produced and directed the pilot for France 2. In 2008, she started her own film and TV company, Abelart Productions. In 2017, she created and launched two online-course platforms with a total enrollment of more than 70,000 students. "KING OF KINGS: Chasing Edward Jones" is her first documentary. Jones resides in Paris.
