Los Angeles (AFP)
Former NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who originally kneeled on the ground during the American anthem to protest police brutality against blacks, will be the subject of a documentary series produced and broadcast by Netflix, a the streaming giant announced on Monday.
"Colin in Black & White", with director Ava Duvernay at the helm, will be devoted to Kaepernick's high school and student years, during which his activism developed.
The former quarterback will be the narrator of his own story, an actor embodying it on screen.
"We explore the racial conflicts I faced as a black man adopted into a white community during my high school years," said Kaepernick.
"Too often we see the racial issue and the stories of black people treated through a white lens," said Kaepernick, who said he wanted to "give a new perspective to the different realities facing black people."
Ava Duvernay distinguished herself last year with the series "When They See Us" ("In their eyes"), inspired by the case of a jogger from Central Park, assaulted and raped in 1989, which led to the imprisonment, wrongly, of five adolescents, four African-Americans and a Hispanic, convicted after confessions obtained under duress and in the absence of material evidence.
Kaepernick has not played in the league for more than three years and the end of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers he led to the Super Bowl final in 2013.
No club hired him after the protest movement he launched in the fall of 2016 and was relayed by other American sportsmen throughout the following year, provoking the ire of Donald Trump who treated as "son of a bitch" those who allegedly offended the American flag, the nation and its soldiers.
The murder of George Floyd in late May in Minneapolis, suffocated for 8 minutes and 46 seconds by the knee of a policeman resting on his neck, rekindled anger against racial injustice and the "Black Lives Matter" movement throughout the country . And Kaepernick's kneeling has been rehabilitated during numerous demonstrations.
"With his protest, Colin Kaepernick opened a national debate on the issue of racial justice with far-reaching consequences for American football, culture and for him personally," said Duvernay.
© 2020 AFP