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Selma
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Ava DuVernay‘s 2014 film Selma will be free to watch online all month long. Paramount is making the Martin Luther King Jr. drama available to rent on all digital platforms at zero cost starting today, Entertainment Weekly reports.
DuVernay shared the news on her Twitter account this morning. “Happy to share: Paramount Pictures is offering SELMA for free rental on all US digital platforms for June, starting today,” she wrote. “We’ve gotta understand where we’ve been to strategize where we’re going. History helps us create the blueprint. Onward. @SelmaMovie.”
The Golden Globe-nominated film follows the historic 1965 journey Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) made from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to fight for equal voting rights for Black Americans, despite facing violence and racism along the way. His march resulted in Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices. The film also stars Oprah Winfrey, Lakeith Stanfield, Carmen Ejogo and Tessa Thompson.
DuVernay’s announcement comes hours after she spoke up to support Oyelowo’s claims that Selma was snubbed by the Oscars after the cast wore “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts to the film’s premiere. In a Q&A with Screen Daily yesterday, Oyelowo recalled the premiere, which happened the same year Eric Garner suffocated in a chokehold by a police officer.
“Members of the Academy called in to the studio and our producers saying, ‘How dare they do that? Why are they stirring shit?’ and ‘We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that,'” Oyelowo said. DuVernay backed up his account, tweeting, “True story.”
Paramount’s free release of Selma is just the latest in a growing collection of free films about the Black experience made available online this week. On June 2, Warner Bros. announced they’d be offering Michael B. Jordan’s Just Mercy for free rentals all June, while the Criterion Collection is lifting the paywall on its content by Black creators, and Magnolia is making three documentaries about Black historical figures free to watch.
Selma is now free to rent on all digital platforms, including Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube and iTunes. It’s available to purchase for $3.99.
