It’s been 20 years since the award-winning documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin by Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer was on our screens.  So this new Netflix feature RUSTIN written by Academy Award Winner Dustin Lance Black and Julian Breece is well overdue.   

Rustin was an African-American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.  As a gay man and, due to criticism over his sexuality, he usually acted as an influential adviser behind the scenes to civil rights leaders.   However, In the 1980s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes, speaking at events as an activist and supporter of human rights.

Hopefully, this new film by two-time Tony Award winner Broadway director George C Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and starring Emmy Award winner the openly-gay actor Colman Domingo (Euphoria) will pay tribute to all of Rustin’s major achievements which had such a powerful impact on gay rights.

President Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom and now he and Michelle are Executive Producers of this film which will screen on September 17th.  The film also stars Chris Rock, Glynn Turman and Audra McDonald.