One of the best films of the year. One of the best performances, too.
We saw Rustin at Telluride and fell in love with Colman Domingo, who gives an extraordinary performance as Bayard Rustin, a little-known activist responsible for orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington. You can read my recap of the film here, or listen to Clarence and I talk about Telluride here.
About RUSTIN:
Directed by DGA Award and five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe and starring Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo, RUSTIN shines a long overdue spotlight on Bayard Rustin, the architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington.
Alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin dared to imagine a different world and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom. He challenged authority and never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or who he desired. And he did not back down. He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten.
Produced by Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen, Higher Ground’s Tonia Davis and George C. Wolfe, RUSTIN features an all-star cast that includes Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts, with Jeffrey Wright and Audra McDonald.
The road to RUSTIN began with triumphant debuts at Telluride and TIFF and went on to win audience awards at Heartland and MVFF. Along the way, Wolfe received the Spotlight Award at MVFF, the inaugural Sherzum Award at the Hamptons Film Festival and will be honored with the Impact Award at the upcoming Middleburg Film Festival.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, the acclaimed director talked about the importance of Bayard’s story. “Rustin, who was, in Wolfe’s estimation ‘about as out as a Black man could be in 1960s America,’ was largely pushed aside by civil rights leaders who feared that his sexuality would bring shame on the movement,” wrote Jenny Comita. “‘Here was this monumental human being who changed history, and then history forgot him,’ says Wolfe, himself a gay man, who has lived in New York City since 1979. Telling stories like Rustin’s, he says, is ‘a means to share, to inform, to challenge, to confront the world.’”
