Co-writer and director Ava DuVernay and many cast members showed their support for Eric Garner and Mike Brown at the New York premiere of Selma, a film that sheds light on another massive civil rights movement in the United States.
From left to right: E. Roger Mitchell (Rev. Frederick Reese), Wendell Pierce (Rev. Hosea Williams), Omar J. Dorsey (James Orange), John Lavelle (Roy Reed), Stephan James (John Lewis), Kent Faulcon (Dr. Sullivan Jackson), David Oyelowo ( Martin Luther King Jr.), Lorraine Toussaint (Amelia Boynton), co-writer and director Ava DuVernay, Tessa Thompson (Diane Nash), André Holland (Andrew Young), and Colman Domingo (Rev. Ralph Abernathy) on the steps of the New York Public Library.
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The upcoming film Selma — based on the 1965 voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama — has been earning early acclaim, and the film could not be more timely. At the New York premiere of Selma on Sunday night, many cast members and co-writer/director Ava DuVernay followed in the footsteps of the historical figures they brought to the screen, wearing "I can't breathe" T-shirts over their red-carpet suits and gowns.
The premiere was held the day after Millions March in New York, where peaceful protesters marched through Manhattan to protest a Staten Island grand jury's decision to not indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed asthmatic black man who was held in a chokehold, despite saying repeatedly, "I can't breathe." He died later as a result. The Notre Dame's women basketball team wore similar T-shirts over the weekend during warm-ups, as did the L.A. Lakers and other NBA teams earlier this week.
DuVernay and many Selma cast members — David Oywlowo, E. Roger Mitchell, Wendell Pierce, Omar Dorsey, John Lavelle, Stephan James, Kent Faulcon, Lorraine Toussaint, Andre Holland, Tessa Thompson and Colman Domingo — also held their arms up, to represent "hands up, don't shoot" in honor of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, in August. The police officer who killed Brown was also not indicted by a grand jury.
Corey Reynolds, who plays CT Vivian in Selma, kept his shirt on as he walked the carpet, while Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who plays Bayard Rustin, posed with his hands up.
Noam Galai / WireImage
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