Some time ago, I wrote about the The Negro Motorist Green Book , which was a travel guide written by Victor Hugo Green. It was first published in 1936 and regularly updated to inform black Americans during the Jim Crow days what places they could shop, eat, and stay the night during road trips across the US, and what towns were “Sundown Towns” where black people were banned from being outside after dark.
There is now a film, based on a true story, about Jamaican-American jazz concert pianist Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) who goes on a concert tour through the deep south in 1962 with his Italian-American driver (played by Viggo Mortensen) who himself has racist views.
Here’s the trailer.
Here’s a short interview with the two main actors and director Peter Farrelly about how the film came about.
I’m looking forward to seeing it.
One of the biggest criticisms I’ve read about the movie are that they made a film called Green Book and still managed to center it mostly around a white guy which, yeah, isn’t a good look.
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/green-book-has-great-acting-a-misleading-title-and-pa-1830572839