Selma
(2014)
PG-13 | 122 mins | Drama | 25 December 2014
Director:
Ava DuVernayWriter:
Paul WebbProducers:
Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner, Jeremy KleinerCinematographer:
Bradford YoungEditor:
Spencer AverickProduction Designer:
Mark FriedbergProduction Companies:
Plan B Entertainment, Cloud Eight Films, Harpo FilmsThe actor who plays "Jimmie Lee Jackson" is credited as "Lakeith Lee Stanfield" in opening credits and "Lakeith Stanfield" in end credits.
As noted in various contemporary sources, including articles in the 3 Dec 2014 NYT and the 19 Dec 2014 LAT, Selma was the first theatrically-released feature film in which Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was a main character. However, attempts at making a picture about the civil rights leader had been in the works for many years, including Selma, and several unproduced films such as an unnamed Steven Spielberg biographical picture, and Paul Greengrass’s Memphis. According to a 16 Dec 2014 HR article, the properties remained in limbo because King’s offspring were conflicted about how to manage their father’s estate. Although Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and life rights are owned by the estate, they were licensed to Dreamworks and Warner Bros. in 2009 for the Spielberg production, which at one point had Oliver Stone attached as director. The King heirs launched several copyright infringement lawsuits against news outlets and documentary filmmakers including CBS television, USA Today, the PBS series Eyes on the Prize (1987), and actor-political activist Harry Belafonte, and also filed suits against each other. King’s family contracted with Intellectual Properties Management to represent the rights to his speeches. According to HR, words and images on the Martin Luther King, Jr., monument in Washington, DC, were licensed for $761,160 with an additional “$71,000 management fee” for the siblings. In 2006, King’s papers sold at auction for $32 million, and some ...
The actor who plays "Jimmie Lee Jackson" is credited as "Lakeith Lee Stanfield" in opening credits and "Lakeith Stanfield" in end credits.
As noted in various contemporary sources, including articles in the 3 Dec 2014 NYT and the 19 Dec 2014 LAT, Selma was the first theatrically-released feature film in which Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was a main character. However, attempts at making a picture about the civil rights leader had been in the works for many years, including Selma, and several unproduced films such as an unnamed Steven Spielberg biographical picture, and Paul Greengrass’s Memphis. According to a 16 Dec 2014 HR article, the properties remained in limbo because King’s offspring were conflicted about how to manage their father’s estate. Although Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and life rights are owned by the estate, they were licensed to Dreamworks and Warner Bros. in 2009 for the Spielberg production, which at one point had Oliver Stone attached as director. The King heirs launched several copyright infringement lawsuits against news outlets and documentary filmmakers including CBS television, USA Today, the PBS series Eyes on the Prize (1987), and actor-political activist Harry Belafonte, and also filed suits against each other. King’s family contracted with Intellectual Properties Management to represent the rights to his speeches. According to HR, words and images on the Martin Luther King, Jr., monument in Washington, DC, were licensed for $761,160 with an additional “$71,000 management fee” for the siblings. In 2006, King’s papers sold at auction for $32 million, and some sources estimated that the heirs had earned $50 million by 2014. Realizing the potential complications, Selma filmmakers did not attempt to make a deal with the estate or its representatives. The screenplay was written to approximate King’s speeches as closely as possible, even “just altering a word or two,” without violating the family’s copyright claims. Selma was not endorsed by the King family, but HR pointed out that none of the children formally denounced the picture, either.
Despite Dreamworks’ and Warner Bros.’ success in licensing rights to King’s speeches and life story, Paul Webb’s screenplay for Selma was optioned by actor-producer Brad Pitt’s company, Plan B, funded by Pathé Productions, and championed by British actor David Oyelowo, who first read the script in 2007 and devoutly believed that God wanted him to play the role of “Martin Luther King, Jr.” The first directors involved with the project were: Michael Mann, with whom director Ava DuVernay worked as a publicist; Stephen Frears; Paul Haggis; Spike Lee; and, later, Lee Daniels. As stated in a 31 Oct 2014 LAT article and the 3 Dec 2014 NYT, Daniels worked for years developing the film, but when he left to make The Butler (2013, see entry), it seemed that the project was not going to be produced, after all. However, Oyelowo refused to give up, and sent a letter to Pathé Productions, urging them to hire DuVernay. The actor had worked with DuVernay on her second fictional feature film, Middle of Nowhere (2012, see entry), which had a budget of $200,000 and earned her the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival, making DuVernay the first African American woman to receive this honor.
Before becoming a director, DuVernay established her own publicity agency at age twenty-seven, and gained exposure to on-set filmmaking. She told the 3 Dec 2014 NYT that working on Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004, see entry) inspired her to transition from publicity to production, and she began making documentaries. Her first narrative feature film, I Will Follow (2010, see entry), was released through her own distribution company. Profits from I Will Follow funded Middle of Nowhere.
While establishing herself as a director, DuVernay continued to work as a publicist and crossed paths with the Selma project in Jan 2010, when controversy arose over an NYDN article that erroneously claimed Paul Webb’s script included a flirtatious scene between King and a prostitute. To address the controversy, DuVernay was hired as a liaison between the Selma filmmakers and the King family. Soon after, director Lee Daniels left the project, and Oyelowo had DuVernay hired to direct the $200,000 production. A 26 Nov 2014 WSJ article noted that producer Oprah Winfrey joined the project around that time and brought along immense financing power. A 31 Jan 2014 HR news item confirmed her role as a producer. Winfrey’s influence transformed Selma from a low-budget, independent feature into a $20 million major studio production.
Although she is not credited onscreen as a writer, various sources stated that DuVernay reworked the script, emphasizing King and the female characters over President Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ) point of view. In the 26 Nov 2014 WSJ article, Oyelowo stated that the early version of the screenplay failed to portray “how much LBJ was cajoled by the Selma campaign.”
According to the 31 Oct 2014 LAT, a large part of principal photography took place at the Alabama locations where the film’s three main historical events occurred in 1965: “Bloody Sunday,” “Turnaround Tuesday,” and the five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, which ultimately led to the federal approval of the Voting Rights Act. According to a 12 Jun 2014 HR news item that announced the casting of Giovanni Ribisi, principal photography was already underway. Sources varied on reports of the end date, with 2 Jul and 4 Jul 2014 being cited. A 4 Dec 2014 LAT article stated that the shoot lasted thirty-two days, indicating a start date in late-May, or early-Jun 2014. A 4 Dec 2014 LAT interview with director of photography Bradford Young stated that the film was in its final days of post-production at that time.
On 31 Oct 2014, Var announced that Selma was set to premiere “30 minutes of footage from the film” at AFI FEST, on 11 Nov 2014, at the Egyptian Theatre. Several weeks later, however, a 10 Nov 2014 HR news item announced the film would make its world premiere at AFI FEST in its entirety, followed by a conversation with DuVernay, Winfrey, producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, and Oyelowo. According to a 12 Nov 2014 Var article, the switch was revealed “in a Twitter exchange” between DuVernay and Winfrey.
As noted in a 26 Dec 2014 HR article, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., President Lyndon B. Johnson’s chief of domestic affairs, took issue with the film’s portrayal of LBJ, claiming he was depicted as a figure who represented “the obstacles blacks faced in getting civil rights laws passed.” Three days later, the 29 Dec 2014 HR published DuVernay’s response via Twitter, which declared Califano’s comments to be offensive. She encouraged viewers to come to their own conclusions, and “interrogate history.”
Selma was named one of AFI’s Movies of the Year. It won a Golden Globe award for Best Original Song - Motion Picture (John Legend and Common, for “Glory”), and received Golden Globe nominations for Best Director - Motion Picture and Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (David Oyelowo). The film was also nominated for two Academy Awards: Music - Original Song (Legend and Common) and Best Picture.
End credits include the following acknowledgments: "This project was completed with assistance from the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development," and, "Filmed on location in Alabama."
End credits also cite the following: "Archival materials courtesy of: NBCUniversal Archives; T3 Media; UCLA Film & Television Archive; The Associated Press; The New York Times, March 8, 1965 © 1965 The New York Times. Used under license Getty Images; White House Historical Association (White House Collection); Superstock; Edvard Munch © 2014 The Munch Museum/The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS); New York Corbis Jacob Lawrence © 2014 The Jacob and Gwedolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS); New York Alabama Historical Commission, Montgomery, Alabama; Alabama State University for use of 1960 GMC Bus." End credits also note, "Jason Moran appears courtesy of Blue Note Records."
The following receive "Thanks to: Mayor Robert Evans (Selma, AL), City of Selma, AL, City of Montgomery, AL, City of Covington, AL, City of Marietta, AL, City of Conyers, GA, Georgia Film Commission, Alabama Film Office, Atlanta Police Department, Janssen Robinson, Mary-Anne Rose, Visionary Art Gallery, Orange Hill Art Gallery, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, Gene Albritton, Kennesaw Mountain High School Art Department, Luia Aristondo, Jay Bailey, Danielle Faye, John Grybowski, Jeremiah Hawkins, Jeremy Hunt, Kara A. Molitor, Katherine Pummell."
End credits also state: "The Director Wishes to Thank: Ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman John Lewis, Reverend C. T. Vivian, Amelia Boynton Robinson, Murray and Darlene Maye, Tera and Jina DuVernay, Nicholas and Kristopher Maye, Jeanne Francis and Aminata Sall, Calvin and Alberta Lynch, Robin Swicord and Nick Kazan, Nina Shaw and Gordon Bobb, Rand Holston and Ben Weiss, George Evans, Beverly Wood, Gary May, Marjorie Goodwin Garnes, Victoria and Stephen Oyelowo."
On December 10, 1964, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Around the same time, a black woman named Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to vote in Selma, Alabama, but a white clerk denies her application when she cannot name all sixty-seven Alabama county court judges. Martin Luther King, Jr. travels to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who claims that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the accomplishment of his life. President Johnson asks King to continue leading the Civil Rights Movement, because he does not want a militant taking over. King agrees if Johnson is willing to create Federal legislation granting African Americans the unencumbered right to vote. Johnson, who claims his new agenda is a “war on poverty,” says the South needs more time to desegregate before they can move forward with full voting rights for black citizens. King reminds Johnson of the four African American girls who were killed in a racially motivated church bombing in 1963, and says African American victims will never receive justice because, without the right to vote, they cannot serve on juries and have no influence on elected officials. Johnson maintains that he must set the voting agenda aside. Tackling the issue on his own, King travels to Selma with colleagues from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), including Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, James Bevel, and Diane Nash. At a hotel, a white man approaches King to shake his hand but punches him instead. President Johnson learns of the assault in the newspaper. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), ...
On December 10, 1964, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Around the same time, a black woman named Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to vote in Selma, Alabama, but a white clerk denies her application when she cannot name all sixty-seven Alabama county court judges. Martin Luther King, Jr. travels to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who claims that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the accomplishment of his life. President Johnson asks King to continue leading the Civil Rights Movement, because he does not want a militant taking over. King agrees if Johnson is willing to create Federal legislation granting African Americans the unencumbered right to vote. Johnson, who claims his new agenda is a “war on poverty,” says the South needs more time to desegregate before they can move forward with full voting rights for black citizens. King reminds Johnson of the four African American girls who were killed in a racially motivated church bombing in 1963, and says African American victims will never receive justice because, without the right to vote, they cannot serve on juries and have no influence on elected officials. Johnson maintains that he must set the voting agenda aside. Tackling the issue on his own, King travels to Selma with colleagues from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), including Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, James Bevel, and Diane Nash. At a hotel, a white man approaches King to shake his hand but punches him instead. President Johnson learns of the assault in the newspaper. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), tells Johnson that King is a degenerate and suggests shutting him down. At his home in Atlanta, Georgia, King tells his wife, Coretta, he plans to return to Selma the next day. He says the local sheriff, Jim Clark, has a bad reputation and will not go down without a fight. When he jokes that he could die, Coretta reprimands her husband for making light of the situation. In Selma, the SCLC sets up a headquarters at the home of Richie Jean Jackson. Reverend Hosea Williams informs King that members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) are in town and upset with the SCLC for encroaching on their territory. The next day, King delivers a speech to a crowd of 700 churchgoers, citing voting rights in Selma as his next objective. He laments that fifty percent of Selma’s population is African American, but of those, only two percent can vote. The crowd applauds King’s speech and chants, “Give us the vote.” Later, John Lewis and James Forman, two SNCC representatives, confer with King and the SCLC. The young men argue that they have been handling voter registration in Selma for two years and do not want drama. King’s colleagues accuse them of failing, but King orders the men to stop arguing. He tells the students that his organization works by negotiating, demonstrating and resisting, and gaining publicity to raise the white man’s consciousness. King says the only way to get President Johnson’s attention is to be on the cover of the newspaper every day, and that requires drama. Thus, he has come to Selma because Sheriff Jim Clark will deliver the necessary drama to promote their cause. Later, the SNCC joins the SCLC on a march to the Selma Courthouse. King asks for access to the courthouse for voter registration, but police guards beat the activists away with nightsticks. When Annie Lee Cooper retaliates by punching a policeman, she is thrown to the ground and taken into custody with others. In response to the demonstration, Alabama Governor George Wallace gives a speech in favor of segregation. Spending the night in jail, King wonders what prize he is seeking. He tells Rev. Abernathy that once African Americans achieve equal rights, they will still lack the education and money to utilize them. Abernathy assures him they will build the path “rock by rock.” Coretta King travels to Selma to see Malcolm X, a controversial civil rights activist who has publicly denounced King’s nonviolent doctrine and accused him of colluding with white men. However, Malcolm X says he has come to help King’s cause by provoking authorities himself, allowing King to appear as the lesser of two evils. Coretta says she does not want to see her husband’s work undone. She visits King in jail and tells him about Malcolm X’s proposal. King reprimands her for meeting with his rival and accuses her of being enamored with him. However, he quickly apologizes, claiming he is tired. Governor George Wallace gets word that Malcolm X is in town and decides Sheriff Jim Clark needs backup. King goes to California for a fundraiser just as Alabama state troopers arrive in Selma. The troopers crack down on protestors on the streets of Selma, delivering brutal beatings and shooting dead Richie Jean Jackson’s son, Jimmie Lee. Upon his return, King greets Jimmie’s grieving grandfather, Cager Lee. At church, King announces that the state troopers were acting under Wallace’s orders, but every white authority figure who turned a blind eye is responsible. He notes that Malcolm X was shot and killed the day before, and says the news reminded him of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Preparing for another meeting with President Johnson, King meets with SCLC leaders, who discuss legislation points for a voting rights law. They stress the importance of ending unfair practices such as poll taxes and voter vouchers. At the White House, King tells Johnson he plans to march from Selma to Montgomery. Johnson warns him it is too dangerous and his adviser, Lee C. White, tells King about threats coming from Lowndes County, Alabama. White suggests King stay off of the front lines. Later, Johnson asks White to call in J. Edgar Hoover. In Atlanta, Coretta listens to death threats left on the Kings’ answering machine. She tells her husband she has gotten used to a lot, but never the proximity of death. She asks if he loves her, and he tells her he does. Then she asks if he loves any of his mistresses? King pauses before saying no. On March 7, 1965, the march from Selma to Montgomery begins with over 500 people in attendance. Protestors carry bedrolls and lunch sacks as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On the other side, a line of state troopers awaits. The troopers order the crowd to disperse in two minutes. When demonstrators refuse, authorities, some on horseback, attack the protestors with nightsticks, tear gas, and whips. Footage of the mayhem is televised. King, who was not present for the first day of the march, calls for anyone who believes in justice, and clergymen of all races, to join them in the next march. New recruits, many of them white, pour into town. Two days later, King leads a larger group, one-third of which is white, across the bridge, where they are stopped again. Facing a line of troopers, King kneels and prays, then turns around and leads the protestors back in silence. That night, James Reeb, a white clergyman from Boston, Massachusetts, is beaten and killed for taking part in the march. King worries about losing more lives. Soon after, Coretta joins him at an Alabama courthouse, where Hosea Williams, John Lewis, and SCLC member Amelia Boynton sue Governor Wallace for the right to march. An Alabama judge grants them permission for a five-day march. Afterward, Wallace meets President Johnson, who urges the governor to relent and give African Americans the vote. Soon after, Johnson announces that he will send a law to Congress, designed to eliminate illegal barriers to voting. Despite warnings from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar, King joins the protestors in the next march. King and Coretta walk on the front lines, linking arms and singing with fellow protestors. On March 25, 1965, after five days of marching across Alabama, camping in tents overnight, the protestors gather outside the State Capitol in Montgomery. There, King delivers a triumphant speech. Following the march: Cager Lee finally registers to vote at age 84; Andrew Young becomes an ambassador to the United Nations; John Lewis goes on to become a Georgia Congressman; George Wallace unsuccessfully runs for president four times, and is paralyzed in a 1972 assassination attempt; Sheriff Jim Clark is not re-elected; Viola Liuzzo, a white protestor, is killed by Ku Klux Klansmen; Coretta Scott King starts the King Center and establishes Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday; President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and King continues to lead the Civil Rights Movement until his murder in 1968.
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