The Obamas' production company brings Bayard Rustin's civil rights struggle to Netflix
Rustin is a biographical drama film produced by Michelle and Barack Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, for a Netflix distribution. The film is directed by filmmaker and playwright George C. Wolfe, best known for helming Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Julian Breece co-writes the screenplay alongside screenwriter and LGBT rights activist Dustin Lance Black, who previously wrote the award-winning screenplay for Milk, a film about the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, USA.
Award-winning actor Colman Domingo takes on the titular role of Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights organiser and activist at the heart of the story. Comedian Chris Rock joins him as Roy Wilkins, a famous NAACP leader during the 1960s. Aml Ameen plays the legendary civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Glynn Turman portrays the unionist Asa Philip Randolph, and the rest of the cast includes Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Audra McDonald, Jeffrey Wright, among others.