Director Ryan Coogler and his team answering questions after the premier of Fruitvale. Honored to have been there!
PARK CITY, Utah — My heart, racing. Torn between feelings of anger, sadness and disgust, I physically was sick to my stomach and near tears — and all of these emotions within the first few minutes of the movie premier of Fruitvale at the Sundance Film Festival.
Fruitvale is a movie about the life and unjust, brutal murder of 22 year-old Oscar Grant by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle. With the help of an amazing team and assistance from Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, 26 year-old director Ryan Coogler has created a masterpiece that depicts the unmeasurable value of human life with the most effective delivery.
From opening scene, this film had the entire audience captivated. Coogler did a great job introducing Oscar Grant (played by Michael B. Jordan) not as an angel, but as a loving father to his 5 year-old daughter Tatiana and as an undeniably imperfect person, but one we could all relate to and love.
This film was well scripted and thoughtfully crafted. The cast, including Octavia Spencer and Melanie Diaz, also did a great job. More than anything, it felt authentic. I didn’t feel as though the director was trying to force-feed us on any of his opinions, but rather, he was just telling the story as it was. An emotionally heart-wrenching story. So emotional, that at one point, there were audience members sobbing aloud in all directions.
My heart breaks that this story is true. It breaks even more at the way the story ends. I’m grateful Coogler decided to share this story with the world in the way he has. Not just to show how much work needs to be done with regards to certain procedures within the police force, but to also show how much work needs to be done as far as how we treat one another as human beings.
(Fruitvale has since won U. S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic & Audience Award: U. S. Dramatic presented by Acura in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Awards).
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O’Reilly, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray. Click here for more on the cast.
