Colman Domingo Delivers Rousing Portrait of the March on Washington’s Architect in ‘Rustin’ Trailer
Directed by George C. Wolfe and also starring Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright, Audra McDonald and Aml Ameen, the film releases in select theaters November 3 before hitting Netflix on November 17.
The first trailer for Rustin about the life and work of Bayard Rustin, the openly gay Black civil rights leader and architect of 1963’s March on Washington should put end to history of erasure around the visionary’s legacy.
Gay Directors. By Emanuel Levy (Columbia University Press).
life and work of Bayard Rustin, the openly gay Black civil rights leader and architect of 1963’s March on Washington, promises to put an end to the history of erasure around the visionary’s legacy.
“A demonstration made up of angelic troublemakers such as yourselves,” Domingo can be seen telling a group of young activists. “On Aug. 28, Black, white, young, old, rich, working class, poor will descend on Washington, D.C.”
Later in the trailer, Domingo’s Rustin promises: “We are committed to the cause of altering the trajectory of this country towards freedom. They either believe in freedom and justice for all, or they do not.”
Despite others’ unwillingness to see Black queer people as equal fighters and benefactors in the civil rights cause, Rustin’s strength of character and will helped galvanize a generation and set in motion one of history’s most monumental displays of resistance and calls for freedom. It also begs the question of how he could have been so forgotten by the very country he reshaped for the better.
“He 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.
Rustin is produced by Bruce Cohen and Higher Ground’s Tonia Davis, with Higher Ground’s Barack and Michelle Obama, Mark R. Wright, Alex G. Scott, David Permut, Daniel Sladek and Chris Taaffe serving as executive producers.
Rustin is in select theaters Nov. 3 and will stream on Netflix beginning Nov. 17.
