Selma (DuVernay, 2014) is streaming for free on Whakaata Māori/Māori Television
A friend of mine came to stay with us for the long weekend and he’s always a good person to ask for viewing recommendations because he relies almost entirely on free-to-air and free streaming, especially the excellently curated Māori+ streamer from Whakaata Māori.
He had just seen Ava DuVernay’s historical drama Selma for the first time – the story of Martin Luther King’s campaign for voting rights and the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in 1965. Made him cry, he told me.
I reviewed this one for Nine to Noon back at the beginning of 2015 and described it as “terrifically vivid … and quite horrific” and that for 80 percent of the film it would have been an absolute front runner for that year’s Best Picture Oscar …
Except for the scenes featuring white actors such as Tom Wilkinson (Lyndon B. Johnson) and Tim Roth (George Wallace) which simply didn’t work for me at all.
Still, David Oyelowo is magnetic as MLK – especially as the film didn’t have the rights to any of King’s speeches. Steven Spielberg still has those, I think.
Further Reading
Part Two of my Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival preview has just gone up at RNZ Widescreen. Today I look at Reality, Saint Omer and Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams.
