Here’s your first full look at Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, the civil rights activist and organizer behind the historic 1963 March on Washington, in George C. Wolfe’s biopic for Netflix.
Directed by DGA Award and five-time Tony Award winner Wolfe and starring Emmy award winner Domingo in the title role, Rustin, in the words of the official synopsis, “shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom.”
The film, produced by Bruce Cohen, Higher Ground’s Tonia Davis, and George C. Wolfe, also features a cast that includes Chris Rock as Roy Wilkins, Glynn Turman as A. Philip Randolph, Jeffrey Wright as Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr., and Audra McDonald as Ella Baker. Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers.
Rustin debuted on August 31 at the Telluride Film Festival and had its international premiere on September 11 at Toronto. The film endeavors to restore Rustin’s rightful place in the history of the Civil Rights Movement long denied his because of his homosexuality.
“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 said of Rustin. “Democracy is a muscle, and if you don’t exercise it regularly, it ceases to function.”
The pic hits the streamer on November 12. Check out the full trailer above.
