A King Like Me

directed by Matthew Henderson

A King Like Me follows the Zulu Krewe through joy and loss from Hurricane Katrina, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the aftermath of both. The documentary dives into the fascinating origins of the Zulu Club, highlighting how Black people and Black culture have shaped New Orleans, taking the negatives and turning them into something positive.

Streaming on Netflix

Screenings

Our film festival circuit has ended, but you can catch A KING LIKE ME streaming on Netflix!

  • SXSW Film Festival:  World Premiere, March 10, 2024

    SXSW Film Festival:  March 12, 2024

  • MVAAFF: August 8, 2024

    Winner of Best Documentary

  • NOFF: October 16, 2024

    NOFF: October 18, 2024

  • "The film ultimately serves as a vital cultural document, an act of historical preservation that codifies the complex traditions and oral histories of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club for a new generation. By weaving together the club’s deep past with its urgent present, “A King Like Me” tells a story that is at once unique to New Orleans and universal in its powerful themes of community, history, and the unwavering perseverance of the human spirit."

    - Alice Lang, Martin Cid Magazine

  • A King Like Me highlights the people: the way they speak, the way they commune, and the way they eat. This story is told honestly through the lens of the New Orleanians. . . . . But how do we get through it? A King Like Me gets it right: with community.

    -Catalina Combs, Blackgirlnerds.com

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PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

This film could not have been made without the support of:

Meet the Team

Matthew O. Henderson
Director / Cinematographer

  • Matthew Henderson, a native New Yorker, has worked in the Film & Television Industry for over fifteen years.  As a producer, he worked on such films as True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality; The Soul of America; Gordon Parks: A Choice of Weapon; and a yet to be announced three-part documentary series about former President Barack Obama.  

    Matthew bridges the technical and production hemispheres having worked for over ten years as a Camera Assistant and Camera Operator. Matthew’s passion for storytelling coupled with his ability to conceptualize and create compelling, and soulful visuals has allowed him to film all around the world.  Whether it’s a remote aboriginal village in Eastern Australia, floating along the Venice like canals of Makoko, Nigeria in Africa, or filming at depths of five-hundred feet below the Atlantic Ocean, his approach to filmmaking is always the same - tell the story you find, not the one youexpect to find.

Darcy McKinnon
Producer

  • Darcy McKinnon is a documentary filmmaker based in New Orleans whose work focuses on the American South and the Caribbean. Recently released projects include A KING LIKE ME and ROLEPLAY (SXSW, 2024), COMMUTED (PBS, 2024), ALGIERS, AMERICA (Hulu, 2023), UNDER G-D (Sundance 2023), LOOK AT ME! XXXTENTACION (SXSW, Hulu, 2022) and THE NEUTRAL GROUND (Tribeca, POV, 2021). Current projects in production include Jason Fitzroy Jeffers’s THE FIRST PLANTATION, Abe Felix’s TURNAROUND, CJ Hunt’s UNLEARNED, Nicole Craine’s KINFOLK and Zac Manuel’s THE INSTRUMENT. McKinnon’s work has been seen on World Channel, AfroPop, POV, Reel South, LPB and Hulu and has screened at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, CPH:DOX and more. She is an alum of the Impact Partners Producing Fellowship and the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellowship and is a recipient of American Documentary’s Creative Visionary Award.

Additional Team

Rachel Witwer, Line Producer

Osei Essed, Composer

Jeremy Blum, Cinematographer

Paavo Hanninen, Cinematographer

Alejandro Moreno, Cinematographer

Benjamin Simmons, Cinematographer

Andy Sarjahani, Cinematographer

Zuri Obi, Cinematographer

David Pittman, Cinematographer

William Sabourin O’Reilly, Cinematographer

Bill Kirstein, Cinematographer

Hunter Thomas, Cinematographer

Omar Guinier, Cinematographer

LeDerek John Rocque, Sound Recording

Ian Wood, Sound Recording

James Page, Sound Recording

Ben Sellers, Sound Mixer, Drone Camera Operator

Lee Garcia, Additional Sound Recording

Jennifer Samani, Field Producer, Archival Researcher

Amy Rodrigue, Archival Researcher

Katie Pham, Associate Producer, Archival Research

Spencer Crim, Camera Assistant

Zain Hashmat, Production Assistant

Fisher Stevens
Producer

  • FISHER STEVENS has been in the entertainment business for almost 40 years.  His versatility in the industry is evident from his wide range of credits, from acting to directing to producing, from feature film to documentary, and from television to theater.  In 2010, he won the Academy Award for the documentary The Cove.  Political and environmental activism has been a main focus of his work.

    Stevens directed Palmer starring Justin Timberlake, which premiered with record viewership on Apple TV this year, and executive-produced Netflix sensation Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.  Other notable director and/or producer credits include And We Go Green, a documentary about the electric car racing series Formula E on Hulu, The Confidence Man, the last installment of the Netflix original series Dirty Money executive-produced by Oscar®-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, National Geographic’s Before The Flood with Leonardo DiCaprio, and the two time Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which he co-directed.  In earlier years, Stevens directed the Emmy- nominated Netflix original Mission Blue, co-directed the 2008 Independent Spirit Award-Winning Best Documentary Crazy Love and produced Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction for Discovery as well as Netflix’s Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang.  Outside of the documentary realm, Stevens directed Stand Up Guys for Lionsgate starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin as well as “John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown” on Broadway and HBO.