It certainly does in Fruitvale Station, a gripping film rooted in a real-and needless-act of violence. "I work with at-risk kids, which is another reason youth-at-risk comes into my work." "I still have my day job as a counselor at juvenile hall in San Francisco," he told. Being practical as well as talented, he was prepared in case the film bombed. , then went on to win the Prize of the Future at Cannes. But at 27, Ryan Coogler also snagged the Audience Award with his captivating feature, Fruitvale Station Filmmaker magazine Whoever Oscar Grant was before this tragedy may matter only to some people, but who he is after should matter to us all.It's not unusual for a first-time filmmaker to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. He was shot in the back, unarmed, while being held down by police. Whoever Oscar Grant was - a saint, a fuck-up, or something in between - he was taken from the people who saw him in his best light. Coogler seems to have an agenda because he does have an agenda, and it's one that he poignantly fulfilled: to show that Oscar Grant's life mattered. I think it's portraying who he was to the people he loved most and who knew him the best." And there is the key distinction. It just so happened that his mom's birthday and New Year's Eve, and that he'd recently been released from prison. "It's catching him on a day when he's trying to be the best version of himself. "People will say that the film portrays Oscar superpositively, but I disagree," he says. I called Coogler to help me understand his perspective. It was as if I told the principal not only that I didn't take the money but that I'd donated blood on the walk to school. He'd sold drugs to help pay his bills, but just that day he'd gone straight, dumping his last bag of weed in the bay. He'd been cheating on his girlfriend, but just that day he'd promised her he'd be faithful. Grant had been in prison, but he'd put all that behind him. Whenever a flaw is revealed in Grant's past, it is immediately redeemed. Instead of watching an unbiased account of a tragedy, I felt as if I were watching a skillful piece of propaganda designed to provoke the highest level of outrage. Coogler's portrayal is too tidy to reflect the complexity of an actual life. But the result, while moving, feels manipulative. Using the subway footage as an introduction, Coogler pieced together the 24 hours before the shooting by talking to Grant's friends and family. The rest of the city, and the country, moved on.īy making this film, Coogler refused to let that happen. Soon enough, though, the only people remembering Grant were his family and the supporters who gathered each year on the anniversary of his death. After the officer was sentenced to only two years, there were more riots. For the first few months, the Bay Area was inflamed by the killing. In the grainy images, you see Grant, subdued with a knee to his neck, as an officer perched above him draws his gun and fires into his back. There is ample footage of the incident, recorded by BART riders on their cell phones. His film tells the story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who was shot in the back by a transit police officer while he was facedown on the platform of an Oakland, California, BART station in 2009. And that's not fair to Coogler's subject. When I walked out of the new movie by director Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station (out today), I felt the same way my principal had. It was convenient - so perfectly redeeming that it became unbelievable. It didn't matter if my story was true or not. I told the principal I'd changed my mind about taking the money. Then I went to school the next day and everything went to shit. She convinced me I was an idiot, and I decided not to get involved. That night, I told my older sister about the plan. He was making a good chunk of money, and it all seemed pretty harmless - a few kids getting A's on small-time quizzes - so one day, when he asked me to collect the money for him, I agreed. Junior year of high school, my friend ran a cheating ring in our biology class.
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