Dear friends,
I hope you’re safe.
Here are three movies respectively about: the history of racism in America, the relationship between minorities during events such as these, and racism in the justice and police systems.
If you’ve already seen these, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for more recommendations. There are also two TV suggestions at the bottom of the e-mail.
I Am Not Your Negro
On Amazon Prime.
Intellectual and activist James Baldwin started writing a book studying three famous assassinations of civil rights leaders: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. He wrote 30 pages of it but sadly passed away shortly after.
This movie intertwines the 30 pages as narrated by Samuel L. Jackson with interviews and footage from Baldwin’s life. It serves as an introduction to his infinite wisdom and deep understanding of his country.
Gook
On Amazon Prime.
Gook is set during the first day of the 1992 L.A. protests, but it comments on an interesting aspect: dynamics between minorities. It’s about two Korean-American brothers who own a shoe store and strike a friendship with an African-American girl that same morning.
Just Mercy
Available for free in June in the U.S. on YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Redbox, the PlayStation Store, Vudu, or Microsoft.
This 2019 drama is based on the true story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), a young Harvard graduate who moved to Alabama in the 80s to defend wrongly accused prisoners on death row. No one had ever been released from death row in the history of Alabama, and through one wrongly accused Black man (Jamie Foxx), Stevenson sought to change that.
If you’re looking for TV shows instead of movies, I highly recommend When They See Us and Seven Seconds with Regina King, both on Netflix and both on police brutality in the U.S.
This e-mail is usually a single mid-week pick, alternating every Wednesday between a movie and a show. We’ll be back to that format next week.
Talk on Friday,
Bilal
Stellar assortment!