Trailer Released For Biopic On Out American Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin
Image: Trailer Screengrab and Coleman Domingo Instagram
The official trailer for the upcoming biopic about the life of out American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, starring Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead), has been released.
The film, called Rustin, was directed by George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and was written by Julian Breece (When They See Us), Dustin Lance Black (Milk).
The film is produced by US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground.
Responsible For Organising 1963 March On Washington
Bayard Rustin was one of the people responsible for organising the 1963 March On Washington, which culminated in Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream Speech”.
According to a review by ABC News, “It was he who wrangled 80,000 boxed lunches, 22 first aid stations, six water tanks, 2,200 chartered buses, six chartered flights, 292 latrines, over 1,000 Black police officers and a change to the city’s subway schedule, not to mention snagging celebrities like Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Lena Horne and James Baldwin.”
In 2013, Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama.
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‘Marginalised By History On Account Of His Sexuality’
The official logline for the movie reads, “In 1963, Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo) helps to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, only to find himself marginalized by history on account of his sexuality.”
In the trailer, Domingo tells a room of activists, “We are going to put together the largest peaceful protest, made up of angelic troublemakers such as yourselves.”
Rustin also stars Chris Rock (Grown Ups), Glynn Turman (Bumblebee), Jeffrey Wright (Asteroid City), Audra McDonald (Beauty and the Beast), Aml Ameen (Boxing Day), Gus Halper, CCH Pounder (Godzilla: King of the Monsters), and Michael Potts (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).
‘What It Means To Be An American’
“[Rustin] is a role model for what it means to be an American, what it means to daily, moment-to-moment, commit to democracy, commit to freedom, commit to possibility, commit to discovery, commit to passing on that which you know to other people,” Wolfe told Netflix.
Talking about the film in an interview with Deadline, Wolfe said, “I think sometimes you choose a project, but more often than not, I think a project chooses you. There was something about Bayard Rustin’s complexity. There was something about the fact that he was so crucial and so phenomenal and then so forgotten that I found incredibly compelling and very moving and very powerful, and I wanted to live inside of that world.”
Rustin is set to be released on Netflix on November 17.
