The uplift that SELMA delivers is preceded by the real and
painful memories of what happened to sear this southern city into our easily
trampled Pledge of Allegiance which concludes “. . . with liberty and justice
for all.”
Director Ava DuVernay brilliantly faced numerous challenges
to recreate the polarizing battle between whites vs. blacks 50 years ago.
What gives her film its contemporary impact is that it
documents a high risk protest, Martin Luther King’s involvement and the
brutality of local police. These
are powerful emotional and political punches that yank us into the present.
It also reminds us that we are still stuck.
The push-pull of our own racial DNA remains alive and
unwell. DuVernay’s film distills
our 200 plus years of black/white disharmony by focusing on a 3-month regional
uprising in 1965. The results are
clearly viewed as a reminder that there was not just a single hero or villain
who fueled Selma which ultimately caused President Johnson and Congress to
enact new voting rights legislation.
DuVernay skillfully allows us to alternately identify with
the oppressed rioters and infuriated
suppressors. We are put on edge.
Can order be restored or will civil disgust lead to civil war?
Today, consider those not charged with the shooting death of
Michael Brown in Ferguson or the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York.
Should we take to the streets? Or not? The
Times They Aren’t a-Changin’.
#NakedOnTheScene
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