Selma, a long way to vote – BBC

Shunned by the Oscars, the film by Ava DuVernay shows Martin Luther King brave, brilliantly played by British actor David Oyelowo.

The film Selma released in France just days after Barack Obama commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of” Bloody Sunday, “the march for civil rights initiated by Martin Luther King (MLK) in the small town of Selma (Alabama). Ava DuVernay, American director of 42 years, has reconstructed the violent repression of the police against hundreds of protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, “which has played the fate of the nation,” according to US President who stressed that there was still progress to be made in the field of equality. “Racism has not disappeared,” he acknowledged.

A sign? A few days before the Academy Awards on 22 February, several associations of human rights activists demonstrated to denounce the “lack of visibility of actors and professionals from minorities in the film industry.” While he was nominated for the statuette for best film, Selma has won “only” the Oscar for best song. And despite praise from critics and audiences for his performance, the main actor, David Oyelowo, bringing this feature film on his shoulders, has not had the honor of appointments, nor the director.

But it is clear that Ava DuVernay delivers a very academic film, based on linear storyline playwright Paul Webb. In 1964, crowned by the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), which he hopes to get the right to vote for blacks without restriction. Refusal suffered by Pastor sound first peace march for equality for all citizens in Selma.

The filmmaker chronicles the antagonisms that have seen confront Martin Luther King and Lyndon B. Johnson as well as other groups of defenders of human rights who wish to use force to make themselves heard. Purposeful, MLK successful in obtaining the adoption of the Voting Rights Act Aug. 6, 1965, the right to vote for the black population.

The pastor assassinated in 39 years in 1968 is interpreted masterfully by David Oyelowo, recently seen in A Most Violent Year JC Chandor. Ava DuVernay draws in broad strokes a Martin Luther King courageous and determined to which the actor brings sobriety and restraint. The actor has fulfilled his dream, he also invested Idris Elba Mandela: the long road to freedom , Justin Chadwick (2013)

But. for reasons of rights granted to Steven Spielberg, who should in turn make a biopic, the viewer will not hear the famous words of Martin Luther King in his speeches, especially the legendary “. I have a dream”