Sundance winner The Baddest Speechwriter of All just short of quietly leaps out at you. It's not so much because co-directors Stephen Curry and Ben Proudfoot make it so. It's more because 93-year-old Clarence B. Jones commands your presence whether it's with his refreshing honesty, quick wit, or sharpness of mind and spirit. The film picked up Sundance's Short Film Grand Jury Prize, a first for two-time Oscar-winner Ben Proudfoot (The Last Repair Shop, The Queen of Basketball) and a pretty fine debut from first-time director Curry.
And yes, it's that Stephen Curry.
Jones is actually Dr. Clarence b. Jones, a longtime lawyer and a speechwriter, the baddest, for Martin Luther King Jr.
Let's just acknowledge up front that The Baddest Speechwriter of All is a blast to watch, a richly human film that could have easily become overly reverential. My guess is that Jones wouldn't have had it that way. Curry and Proudfoot play it surprisingly subdued though terrifically stylish. The story is told through Jones's personal lens including his doubts, his resistance, and the remarkable toll taken on Jones in crafting words for one of history's greatest speakers.
Already picked up by Netflix, this 29-minute short is screening this week at the Academy Award-qualifying Indy Shorts Film Festival, a Heartland Film joint that's always a blast and ideally suited to host such an entertaining and meaningful film. Proudfoot is no stranger to Heartland, so meaningful to the fest is he that he's most assuredly a branch on the Heartland tree of life.
It's fair to say that Jones, who passed away this past May at the age of 95, did indeed help define the language of the Civil Rights Movement. The Baddest Speechwriter of All captures the glory of it all without turning the film into an altar call. In addition to tightly framed interviews with Jones, Proudfoot and Curry utilize hand-painted watercolor animation sequences, courtesy of Daniel Bruson, to give the film an immersive, unforgettable quality that somehow makes the storytelling even more effective.
The Baddest Speechwriter of All is a glorious effort, beautifully paced with a tone that captures heart, humor, and surprising humility from a badass human who lived a truly remarkable life.
It's a marvelous thing to give Dr. Jones his due, a reminder of the importance of history's quieter moments and background players who sacrificed much and were often acknowledged very little. This is a film that asks important questions at a time in history when those questions are more important than ever. I'll admit I've come to expect great things from Proudfoot, and he's yet to let me down.
The Baddest Speechwriter of All is one of the highlights of Indy Shorts in 2026, and a film you won't easily forget.
Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
