60 years ago this August, there was the March on Washington, which concluded with the "I Have a Dream" speech. Lost in the shuffle is the lead organizer of the event, Bayard Rustin, whose homosexuality pushed him out of the "leading face" role.
This is a dramatization of Rustin's role in the organization of the march. It went thru several changes in concept, as he and his mostly-youthful volunteers arranged massive logistics for what was planned as a 100,000 person event. More modifications had to be made as heads of major unions and religious groups came on board.
However, detractors from the right picked at his Communist background, and his homosexuality, which meant that he had to keep a lower profile, and he was not one of the "Big Ten" who were invited to meet with President Kennedy afterwards.
Some parts of the story had to be condensed, but the backbone remains intact. The producers did a good job of shooting the crowd scenes, including some marchers in "period costume". Colman Domingo did an excellent job in the lead role of the driven Rusin.
I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the audience at various times broke out into spontaneous applause. The producers talked about sending the script to Barack Obama, which brought the Obamas on board as executive producers. Obama, who had given Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the 50th anniversary of the march, even recorded an introduction to the film.
This is a dramatization of Rustin's role in the organization of the march. It went thru several changes in concept, as he and his mostly-youthful volunteers arranged massive logistics for what was planned as a 100,000 person event. More modifications had to be made as heads of major unions and religious groups came on board.
However, detractors from the right picked at his Communist background, and his homosexuality, which meant that he had to keep a lower profile, and he was not one of the "Big Ten" who were invited to meet with President Kennedy afterwards.
Some parts of the story had to be condensed, but the backbone remains intact. The producers did a good job of shooting the crowd scenes, including some marchers in "period costume". Colman Domingo did an excellent job in the lead role of the driven Rusin.
I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the audience at various times broke out into spontaneous applause. The producers talked about sending the script to Barack Obama, which brought the Obamas on board as executive producers. Obama, who had given Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the 50th anniversary of the march, even recorded an introduction to the film.