At the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Rowe wore elegant tuxedos, mixing black and gold, and on the red carpet Free unbuttoned his suit to reveal the lining, printed on its black canvas 17 names in gold.
These are the names of 17 people who died at the hands of US police in 2014.
After the red carpet, the two directors received an Oscar for their short film Two Distant Strangers, whose story was inspired by the events of the killing of 17 victims who took their names with him to the two plays "Dolby" where the red carpet and the "Union Station" theater. ".
Multiple scenarios for one end
Frey wanted to honor the memory of the people who inspired him to make the film, the story of a black man, performed by rapper and actor Joy Badas, who goes home to serve his dog food, to find himself confronting a white police officer, ending the life of the black man.
Like the movie "Groundhog Day," there are many paths and scenarios to end with the same ending, "his certain death."
The first resembles the infamous death that occurred in "Minneapolis" at the hands of the policeman, Derek Chauvin, and killed the American citizen George Floyd, whose word "I can't breathe" became a slogan for the protest demonstrations that struck the United States in the middle of last year.
Frey not only re-enacted this scene, he reenacted multiple scenarios leading to this one end, based on real events such as the Floyd incident.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Short Film, and the memories of the true storytellers were commemorated on the film's ending tape and in the suit of its maker.
Remembrance of the true story-tellers on film end tape and in the suit of its maker (Getty Images)
Floyd's shadow is present
The presence of the Minneapolis victim at the Oscars was not limited to the film "Ghariban Aidan" and the director's suit only. Umm Ibn Aswad, I know the fear that many live in. There is no amount of fame or fortune that can change that. "
The Floyd incident was a fuel that ignited peaceful demonstrations and angry events within American society, but it also cast a shadow on cinema, as it contributed to the restoration of the heritage of struggle and symbols of black culture within society, which appeared in many Oscar-nominated films and even those left behind in the Academy of Image Arts and Sciences race. American.
Among the nominated films for which some of its members won, appears "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," which tells the story of an American jazz star "Ma Rainey" and "Judas and the Black Christ" which narrates facts from the life of the African-American fighter and writer. Fred Hamton, "and the" Black Panther "party, as well as the film" United States v. Billy Holiday ", which tells part of the biography of jazz singer Billie Holiday, and the movie" Chicago Trial 7 ", which touches on what the black community in America has been exposed to.