Fri 7/3
With all the eye-popping racist stuff in the news — some of it coming from our so-called president — it’s heartening to contemplate the life of John Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders, who was convinced he was going to die on Alabama’s Pettus Bridge in 1965 when Alabama State Troopers violently confronted the peaceful civil rights marchers.
Although he sustained a fractured skull, he survived to get elected to Congress from Georgia in 1986. Since then he’s always been re-elected by overwhelming margins, and was unopposed in 2018. He has continued to represent as a totally unabashed progressive, supporting civil rights, peace, gun safety and of course, voting rights. He also refused to attend the inaugurations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump saying he did not feel they were legitimately elected.
The 80-year-old congressman’s life provides enough material for several films. But we’ll have to be satisfied with one — John Lewis: Good Trouble, being released the day before July 4. Director Dawn Porter combines archival footage and interviews with Lewis, his family, other political leaders and activists to tell the story of his life and how its trajectory changed when he met Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks when he was just a teenager.
The film will be available from Akron’s Nightlight Cinema on July 3.
nightlightcinema.com/movie/john-lewis-good-trouble
Akron, OH 44308