The investigation of the murder of Trayvon Martin may be in too early stages to be turned into a movie, but, sadly, there are plenty of other cases like his. The 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant by a police officer on the BART near San Francisco is yet another case like Trayvon's. In both instances,
people have argued that the shooters saw a young black male and pulled the trigger, without figuring out what was really going on.
The indie drama Fruitvale has lined up Octavia Spencer, fresh off her Oscar win, to play Grant's mother, and Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle, "Friday Night Lights") to star as Grant. The movie will follow Grant on the day of the shooting. Forest Whitaker is producing, and the newbie Ryan Coogler will earn his first feature writing and directing credit for the project.
The deal only just came together in the wake of the publicity of the Martin case, and filming will begin quickly--in just a couple of months. Certainly the press surrounding the other case must have helped the filmmakers pull the financing together and nab Spencer in the casting. This could be seen as a callous capitalization on current events, but in this case, I don't think so. Hollywood tends to shy away from the topic of race. When such issues are addressed, they're often criticized. Some of those criticisms--too soft, reductive, stereotypical-can be spot-on, but they can also have a silencing effect. No one wants to be accused of being called racist.
Fruitvale will have to succeed as a drama first, and a message film second, but the subject matter could illuminate much about race in America that is rarely shown on the silver screen.
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