Even as violence befalls the civilian protests breaking out from coast to coast, people are taking to newer ways to express their solidarity with the BLM movement. Walls all over the country are being covered in graffiti of BLM or Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe.”
Meanwhile, the American entertainment and music industries also observed a Blackout Tuesday in the memory of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by white police officers in Minneapolis.
On Blackout Tuesday, as a contribution of its own, the media giant Warner Bros. announced that it was taking out the film Just Mercy, out of the paywall. The film is aimed at educating the viewers about the roots of racism in America.
“We believe in the power of a story,” read its statement posted on the company’s official Twitter handle Tuesday.
It further announced that the 2019 film would be available for free on all digital platforms in the US for one month. The statement further stated that it was offering the film for free as a resource to understand the systemic racism plaguing the American society in this time of reckoning.
The company further hoped the film will be received in the right spirit and not just as free entertainment.
“To actively be part of the change our country is so desperately seeking, we encourage you to learn more about our past and the countless injustices that have led us to where we are today,” read the statement.
Read the full statement here.
Based on the memoir of the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, the film follows the world-renowned defence attorney as he fights to free a black man condemned, albeit wrongly, to the death row.
Stevenson, a recent Harvard graduate who has arrived in Alabama to help the wrongfully convicted, reviews his case and finds that most of the evidence in the case proves McMillian is innocent.
As Stevenson fights McMillian’s case, he unearths the murky waters of racial injustices and discrimination along the way.
The film then becomes a story of redemption, passion, and mercy set against a corrupt judicial system designed to easily assist the disfavoring of the black people.
In the role of Stevenson is Michael Jordan along with Jamie Foxx as the condemned prisoner. Other cast members include Brie Larson and Tim Blake Nelson under the direction of Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
They previously worked with Larson on the films Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle. The film was co-written by Andrew Lanham (Glass Castle) and Cretton.
The film is available for free on all digital platforms, including Prime Video, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play for one month, starting June 1.
Source: Decider, Coming Soon
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