Published at 2:07 am. Updated at 8:30 a.m.
With the approval of Barack and Michelle Obama as producers, the biographical film Rustin, which opens in several theaters across the country this weekend before landing on Netflix, is an exceptional feature film! Directed by George C. Wolfe, this film redresses a historical injustice against a man who dedicated his life to fighting… injustice.
With the support of Martin Luther King Jr. and young African American leaders, Rustin was the organizer of the Great Black March on Washington 60 years ago. An event that brought 250,000 people together on the Mall and enabled the passage of the Civil Rights Act by Congress the following year.
And he was gay too. Which probably explains why it was forgotten for a long time. Rustin therefore emphasizes a double struggle: that of equal rights for blacks and that of living his homosexuality without shame in a time when “we couldn’t talk about it.”
Five years before Stonewall, Bayard Rustin challenges authority and Puritanism. He refuses to apologize for who he is: “The day I was born with black skin, I was also born gay,” he told King after being publicly criticized by a black and Democratic member of Congress had been denounced as a “pervert”. However, Martin Luther King will defend him and keep him as the organizer of the march.
As Rustin tackles an important element of black history that has been buried for too long, the film also gives its lead actor the opportunity to deliver an exceptional performance! Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey’s, Zola, Euphoria) plays a complex man. Both strong and vulnerable, brilliant and tortured, supportive and lonely. This moving performance will undoubtedly earn Domingo an Oscar selection in the Best Actor category.
Written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black (Milk), Rustin recalls an important aspect of social movements before the rise of intersectionality: there is strength in numbers. In the 1950s, Rustin was a union organizer. That’s why he will use his past as an activist to bring together in Washington all the progressive forces of the United States: white and black, poor and rich, workers and intellectuals, young and old, politicians and religious people. He even convinced 1,200 black police officers to monitor the peaceful gathering – without carrying their weapons! A great history lesson.
In the cinema of the Cinémathèque québécoise in the original English version from November 4th; then on Netflix from November 17th.
Biographical drama
Rustin
George C Wolfe
Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright
1:42am
In cinemas and on Netflix on November 17th