“America is a capitalistic society,” says civil rights attorney Ben Crump in the new trailer for Netflix’s portrait of his life, Civil. “The one thing that America understands is money.”
That statement undergirds Crump’s mission as expressed in the trailer: “If you can make them pay higher values, they will stop killing Black people. It will be an impediment.”
Civil follows a year in Crump’s life as he takes on civil cases for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Andre Hill, whose deaths sparked protests across the U.S. around race, fairness, economic justice and police brutality.
The Netflix film follows the life of the maverick civil rights attorney from childhood, to marriage to father, and the process by which he became the man he is today.
Civil also underscores the other issues Crump is passionate about, including environmental justice and “banking while Black.”
Award-winning filmmaker Nadia Hallgren (Becoming: Michelle Obama) directs the documentary, which is produced by Barris, Roger Ross Williams, Lauren Cioffi and Nadia Hallgren and executive produced by Erynn Sampson, Matthew Carnahan and Geoff Martz.
Civil will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 12 and in select theaters on June 17. It will be released globally on Netflix June 19.
