Orland Park’s MPI Home Video first attracted attention in 1986, when it released the Chicago Bears rap video “The Superbowl Shuffle.” Later it drew even more notice with the video Faces of Death, featuring gory footage of corpses and violent ends. The ensuing controversy put MPI’s owners, brothers Waleed and Malik Ali, on the talk-show circuit, and soon their company produced the slasher movie Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, filmed in Chicago. More recently they’ve issued Emile de Antonio’s classic political documentaries–like Point of Order, about the McCarthy hearings, and Underground, a profile of the radical activist group the Weathermen. But perhaps the Ali brothers are now best known for releasing videos that capitalize on current events, including Bill Clinton’s grand jury testimony, the opening statements of the O.J. Simpson trial, and a digitally enhanced frame-by-frame examination of the Zapruder film.
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So far Ali has completed only three decades of the 12-and-a-half-hour series; it won’t be wrapped up until February. He’ll leave a few minutes open for whatever transpires in the last days of 1999. “If the world ends, maybe we’ll just leave the tape blank there,” he says.
