Time USA – 19 January 2015
.pdf
100+ MAGAZINES | ALL-YOU-CAN-READ ACCESS | ONE LOW PRICE
Try it FREE for 30 days
START YOUR FREE TRIAL TODAY AT NEXTISSUE.COM
WorldMags.net
On the march
Director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo, photographed in New York City
Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME |
WorldMags.net |
CULTURE
A vivid new film about
Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t
come at a better time
M A K I N G
S E L M A
H I S T O R Y
BY DANIEL D’ADDARIO
the most surprising thing about the history of Hollywood and Martin Luther King Jr. is that there isn’t one. There are no good King movies. There are no bad King movies. There are simply a handful of cameos in biopics about other people, such as Ali and Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Nearly 50 years after King’s death in 1968, Selma—which was released in selected cities Dec. 25 and opens nationwide on Jan. 9—is the first full-length film to take a deep look at King or make him the main character. Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo, it examines a pivotal period in the last four years of King’s life, the three votingrights marches he organized from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., that ultimately led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965.
King’s absence from theaters is “a jaw dropper,” says DuVernay. “Let’s not even list the biopics that we’ve had,” she says,
WorldMags.net |
53 |
CULTURE | FILM
King (Oyelowo) and his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) flanked by marchers
“but not one about one of the most famous and influential Americans who changed the way we all behave and live. Films with African-American protagonists are not first on the list of things to do.”
Selma addresses King’s legacy not by putting him on a pedestal but by showing him frustrated and beleaguered. While his obvious opponents were whitesupremacist voters and politicians, he also faced challenges from erstwhile allies, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had grown impatient with his tactics, as well as a complicated presidential partner in Washington. The film’s tight focus on the Selma marches—with their climax on “Bloody Sunday,” when 600 marchers assembled on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and were met with the nightsticks, tear gas and charging horses of Sheriff Jim Clark and his deputies—allows it to closely follow tactical debates among King’s uneasy collaborators and between King and Lyndon Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), who urges the civil rights leader to proceed with greater caution, insisting that change would come incrementally.
“We were not doing a sainted version of him or an overcorrected, antihero version of him—both of which are scripts that have floated around,” DuVernay says. “We wanted to stay close to what happened—a dynamic leader who was at times depressed and let his ego get in control.”
A Long March
the cast and crew of selma began breaking boundaries even before the film was released. DuVernay is the first black woman to be nominated for the Best Director prize at the Golden Globes; expectations are high that she will break the same barrier when nominations are announced on Jan. 15 for this year’s Academy Awards. Oyelowo, who appeared last year in supporting roles in Interstellar and A Most Violent Year, was one of only two black actors nominated for the 30 movie-acting slots at this year’s Golden Globes. (The other was Annie’s Quvenzhané Wallis.) The Screen Actors Guild’s 20 nominees were all white.
DuVernay and Oyelowo both toiled in relative obscurity before Selma. The director spent many years as a publicist, marketing awards-ready movies—often made by white directors—to the black community, including Invictus,The Help and Dreamgirls.
Shedirectedthe sensitiveMiddle of Nowhere (2012), co-starring Oyelowo, about a young woman dealing with her husband’s incarceration, which won her a Best Director prize at Sundance. But her film was overshadowed that year by Beasts of the Southern Wild, a fantastical tale about black life in the South. It was only after Lee Daniels droppedoutofalong-gestatingKingbiopic that DuVernay came aboard, on Oyelowo’s recommendation.
DuVernay, who reshaped screenwriter Paul Webb’s script before production began, says she was still rewriting in Decem-
“Bloody Sunday,” which turned public opinion in favor of voting rights
ber 2013. “Less than a year from script to theaters is a little accelerated,” she says.
That Selma came together at all after years on hold is remarkable. But it’s all the more impressive that the movie denies easy gratification. It has more to say about the messy business of political organization than it does about King. And its time frame—the early months of 1965—means there’s no triumphant “I Have a Dream” moment. King gave that speech at the March on Washington 18 months earlier, andthoughhewouldlaterrepriseelements of it, his tone inSelma is far less optimistic.
Oyelowo, a trained Shakespearean actor, found an advantage in skipping King’s most famous refrain. “It’s like doing ‘To be
‘WE WERE NOT DOING A SAINTED VERSION OF
HIM OR AN |
S E M A J |
N |
|
OVERCORRECTED, |
E W T H C A |
ANTIHERO |
A R PA —Y |
VERSION OF HIM.’ |
P T N U O M |
—ava duvernay |
R U T C I |
|
SE |
|
(3) |
54 |
WorldMags.net |
Marchers cross the Alabama River on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
or not to be,’” he says. “Not to denigrate the speech, but it’s a bit like doing a karaoke song. What you want, in playing a character like Dr. King, is something revelatory. Otherwise, go watch a documentary.” He had been hesitant to dig into the project, he says, until the director “put so much meat on the bone,” challenging him to create an original character rather than ventriloquize an icon. In one gripping sequence, King’s marital tensions come to the fore when the FBI sends his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) a tape of her husband, apparently with another woman. “I knew it was something we had to handle,” says DuVernay.
Oyelowo’s voice echoes King’s familiar intonations but, directed at individuals rather than projected to a crowd, lacks its preacherly openness. Audiences will hear a more intimate side of King. “Most Americans don’t know Dr. King’s conversational voice,” DuVernay says. “They haven’t seen interviewsorheardhimlaugh.Theyknow the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and then that he was killed. There’s a lot in between.”
Reliving History
king’s achievements were legion, but they’re under threat. The Voting Rights Act—the signature accomplishment won in the Selma marches—was weakened by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling. The arguments over what sort of resistance is acceptable and what goes too far could as easily have taken place a month ago, dur-
time January 19, 2015
ing nationwide protests against police brutality toward unarmed people of color. The images of tear gas look all too familiar. “If there’s one thing that Selma shows,” says Oyelowo, “it’s that things haven’t changed enough. There’s things in our film that show how far we need to go and means by which we can get there.”
The film’s most stirring scene comes early, when Annie Lee Cooper (played by Oprah Winfrey, one of the film’s producers) attempts to register to vote, having brought ample documentation, and is faced with an unpassable political-IQ test. The challenges the Selma protesters faced, the movie suggests, weren’t rooted in the sort of racism that could be argued away when rhetoric makes people see reason. They were baked into the political system.
Selma has already ignited controversies of its own. DuVernay has earned praise for her nuanced portrayal of King, but in showing Johnson as a President who was opposed to the marches and had to be manipulatedintoproposingtheVotingRights Act,sheblurredthefacts,accordingtosome historians and an aide who worked in the White House at that time. While Johnson did want to advance his Great Society agenda first, they argue, he had already prepared voting-rights legislation that he could present to Congress. Furthermore, the President was happy that King’s Selma protestsweremakingSouthernbigotslook bad;heknewthenewsfootagewouldbuild
support among sympathetic whites.
WorldMags.net
Critics also question a key plot point involving Johnson, the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, who tells the President he’d be happy to smear King in retaliation. At first, Johnson rejects the idea and decries Hoover’s methods, but later he asks a secretary to connect him with Hoover. We then see King’s wife opening a parcel that holds a recording of King in bed with another woman, along with a threat that he must stop his activity in Selma or face further revelations. It’s true that King was a notorious womanizer, but it was actually Robert F. Kennedy who had approved Hoover’s mud gathering, years earlier. And though the FBI did send such a recording of King, it was mailed the previous year. “We knew we were bugged,” former King aide Andrew Young, who is portrayed in the film, told MSNBC. “But that was before LBJ.”
Others, including writer Gay Talese, who covered the marches for the New York Times, have defended DuVernay’s portrayal of events. And most historians agree that the claim made by Johnson’s aide that the Selma marches were the President’s idea is overstated. DuVernay responded to the criticism with a tweet: “Bottom line is folks should interrogate history. Don’t take my word for it or LBJ rep’s word for it. Let it come alive for yourself.” With King finally getting the kind of big-screen treatment he has always deserved, it is appropriate that he once again
stirs deep argument. |
■ |
|
55 |
CULTURE | FILM
FILM OF THE YEAR: 1965 OR 2014?
Ava DuVernay’s Selma shows how much we still have to learn from Dr. King’s message
BY RICHARD CORLISS
“there is no negro problem. there is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.” President Lyndon Johnson spoke these words in a nationally televised address to Congress on March 15, 1965, just eight days after the “Bloody Sunday” confrontation in Selma, Ala. The naked brutality of this assault spurred LBJ to propose the Voting Rights Act, which passed that August.
Today that act, which Johnson signed with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders at his side, has been effectively gutted by the Supreme Court. The past six months have seen demonstrations, violent and nonviolent, protesting the death of unarmed black men at the hands of police. So Ava DuVernay’s Selma, a vivid restaging of King’s three historic marches from Selma to Birmingham, carries a message of heroic, tragic relevance. If not quite in quality, then certainly in import and impact, this is the film of the year—of 1965 and perhaps of 2014.
If it can overcome critiques from Johnson historians who have challenged part of its narrative, Selma could be a favorite for the Academy Award. To cite it for Best Picture—along with Best Actor for David Oyelowo as King and Best Director for DuVernay—would testify to the Oscar voters’ political consciences as well as to the film’s undeniable power. The members would be voting yes for the hallowed memory of Dr. King and no for the unjustified killings of unarmed blacks.
King would appreciate that conundrum: that violence can be a goad to good. Civil rights had advanced with images of decent black folks clubbed by angry white cops. Alabama promised fertile ground for telegenic confrontation, with its segregationist Governor George Wallace, and Sheriff Jim Clark’s police force primed to be rough on pacifists with dark faces. King knew: If it bleeds, it leads.
He wasn’t a cynic; he was a political realist. And Selma, from a cogent script by
56
Paul Webb, is all about realpolitik in the service of social idealism. King must woo Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), preoccupied with the War on Poverty, even as he and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference cohorts negotiate with the younger, more restless leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
KING WAS A
REALIST. AND
SELMA IS ABOUT
REALPOLITIK
IN THE SERVICE
OF SOCIAL
IDEALISM
WorldMags.net
Marching in Selma for the human dignity of all races
DuVernay, taking the reins of the Selma project after Lee Daniels (Precious) moved on to direct The Butler, worked on Webb’s script, sheared the budget to a manageable $20 million and impressively shepherded a huge cast with dozens of speaking roles and hundreds of extras. No less than King, she proved herself a wizardly community organizer.
Given that King’s children withheld permission to quote their father’s
speeches, Oyelowo wisely avoids mimicking the tremulous cadences of King’s oration. This is a film set not on great lawns but mostly in back rooms, where a forceful whisper can have more effect than a pulpit homily. Oyelowo gives a warm, acute performance and lends King a presence that makes everyone from his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) to LBJ feel the power of his argument, the singe of his soul.
Selma should be a time-capsule relic— a clue to how well we heeded the preacher’s words and how far we have advanced. Instead it is a reminder that the “American problem” has yet to be solved.
time January 19, 2015
T N U O M A R PA —Y E W T H C A N S E M A J
SUMMARY NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND NOTICE IN
CONNECTION WITH SETTLEMENT
If You Purchased Certain Products—Carpet Cushion, Bedding Products (for example, mattresses or pillows), or Upholstered Furniture—Containing Polyurethane Foam, a Class Action Lawsuit and Settlement May Affect Your Rights.
Si usted compró Cojín Alfombra, Ropa de cama (por ejemplo, colchones o almohadas), o muebles tapizados que Contiene espuma de poliuretano, una demanda colectiva y solución puede afectar sus derechos. Para una notificación en Español, llamar o visitar nuestro website.
A lawsuit called In re Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation, Index No. 10-MD-2196 (JZ) is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Toledo. The case is about whether certain manufacturers of polyurethane foam (which is used in carpet cushion, bedding products (such as, mattresses or pillows), and upholstered furniture) conspired to raise the prices of polyurethane foam. On April 9, 2014, the Court decided that this lawsuit could proceed as a class action on behalf of a “Class” or group of people and entities that may include you. Defendants petitioned for leave to appeal that decision and on September 29, 2014, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Defendants’ request. Additionally, a partial settlement has been reached with two of the Defendants: Valle Foam Industries, Inc. and Domfoam International, Inc. (the “Settling Defendants”). The litigation is continuing against all other defendants (the “Non-Settling Defendants”).
The Court has not decided who is right or wrong and nothing in this Notice or the Court’s order permitting this case to proceed as a class action expresses any opinion by the Court as to whether the Class will ultimately be successful on their claims or whether Defendants are in any way liable to the Class. Instead, the Court has ordered this notice to provide information so you may make an informed decision regarding your legal rights.
This notice summarizes your rights and options before an upcoming trial against the Non-Settling Defendants and related to the proposed Partial Settlement. More information is contained in a detailed notice available at the website below.
What Is This Case About? The lawsuit claims that the Defendants engaged in a conspiracy to increase prices of polyurethane foam, which is used in carpet cushion, bedding products (like mattresses and pillows), and upholstered furniture, and to allocate customers. Plaintiffs contend that Defendants’ actions violated antitrust and consumer protection laws in numerous states. The parties have vigorously litigated the suit for several years, including many motions and an interlocutory appeal. The Non-Settling Defendants deny that they did anything wrong and/or that they are liable to the Class. The Court has not decided who is right. If this case goes to trial, the lawyers for the Class will have to prove their claims with the Non-Settling Defendants at a trial.
Are You Affected? If you purchased, not for resale, carpet cushion, bedding products (for example, mattresses or pillows), or upholstered furniture containing polyurethane foam made by Carpenter Co., Domfoam International, Inc., FFP Holdings LLC (f/k/a/ Flexible Foam Products LLC and f/k/a Flexible Foam Products, Inc.), FXI-Foamex Innovations, Inc., Future Foam, Inc., Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co., Mohawk Industries, Inc., Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, Scottdel Inc., Valle Foam Industries, Inc., Vitafoam Products Canada Limited, Vitafoam, Inc., Woodbridge Foam Corporation, Woodbridge Sales & Engineering, Inc., or Woodbridge Foam Fabricating, Inc., in AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, HI, IL, IA, KS, ME, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, NE, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, ND, OR, RI, SD, TN, VT, WV, WI during the period January 1, 1999 to the present, then you are a member of the Class. You are included in the Class if you purchased polyurethane foam “indirectly,” meaning that you did not purchase polyurethane foam directly from any of the Defendants, but instead bought a product from a company other than one of the Defendants that incorporated polyurethane foam made by one of the Defendants.
What Does the Partial Settlement Provide? A Partial Settlement has been reached with the Settling Defendants: Valle Foam Industries, Inc. and Domfoam International, Inc. No money is being paid by Valle Foam Industries, Inc. and Domfoam International, Inc., but they have agreed to provide substantial assistance to the Class in the prosecution of their claims.
Who Represents You? The Court has appointed Marvin A. Miller of Miller Law LLC to represent the Class. The lawyers for the Class will have to prove their claims with the remaining Defendants at a trial. No date has been set for when the trial will begin.
What Are Your Options? If you are included in the Class, you will need to decide whether to: (1) stay in the Class or (2) ask to be excluded from the Class.
To stay in the Class, you do not need to do anything at this time. You will be legally bound by all orders and judgments of the Court, and you won’t be able to sue, or continue to sue, the Defendants as part of any other lawsuit for conspiring to fix prices or allocate customers of polyurethane foam or polyurethane foam products which contain polyurethane foam manufactured by Defendants.
If you do not want to participate in this lawsuit or the Partial Settlement, you may request to exclude yourself from the Class. If you exclude yourself, you will not be bound by or benefit from any court orders, jury verdicts, or settlements approved by the Court, but you keep your right to sue or otherwise resolve your claims, if any, with Defendants on your own. Requests to Exclude must be in writing and received by March 13, 2015. You can obtain more information at www.PolyFoamClassAction.com.
The Court will hold a hearing on April 2, 2015, at 9:00 a.m. at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Court House, 801 W. Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44113 to consider whether to approve the proposed Partial Settlement with Valle and Domfoam. If you stay in the Class, you may object or comment on the Partial Settlement by March 13, 2015. You or your own lawyer may, but are not required to, ask to appear and speak at the hearing at your own cost. The Court may change the date, time or location of the hearing. To obtain the most up-to-date information regarding the hearing date and location, please visit www.PolyFoamClassAction.com or call 866-302-7323.
If you have questions or want a detailed Notice or other documents about this SHARE WHY NATURE MATTERS TO YOU: tpl.org/ourland #OurLand lawsuit and your rights, go to www.PolyFoamClassAction.com or call
WorldMags866-302-7323..Paranetuna notificación en Español, llamar o visitar nuestro website.
AUTHOR
APPROVED!
CURTIS SITTENFELD
Author of Sisterland
d
George and Martha by James Marshall
“These tales of two hippo BFFs are wonderfully irreverent and full of both misbehavior and compassion.”
The Culture | Books
OUR
ALL-TIME
FAVORITE
BOOKS
FOR YOUNG READERS
INSIDE: The best illustrated and chapter books; Meg Wolitzer on a transformative teen novel; “grownup” authors recall beloved classics
Illustrations by Tomi Um for TIME
WorldMags.net
We’re living in a golden age of young-adult literature, when books ostensibly written for teens are equally adored by readers of every generation. In the likes of Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen, they’ve produced characters and conceits that have become the currency of our pop-culture discourse—and inspired some of our best writers to contribute to the genre. To honor the best books for young adults and children, Time compiled this survey in consultation with respected peers such as U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Ken Nesbitt, children’s-book historian Leonard Marcus, the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress, the Every Child a Reader literacy foundation and 10 independent booksellers. With their help, we’ve created two all-Time lists of classics: 100 Best Young-Adult Books and 100 Best Children’s Books. The top 25 in each category are presented here; for the full lists, visit time.com/youngreaders.
MARTIN AMIS
Author of The Zone of Interest
d
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (author) and Clement Hurd (illustrator)
“I must have read Goodnight Moon to my children several thousand times, and I was never bored by it. The book has its own soporific poetry—and it quite often worked.”
GILLIAN FLYNN
Author of Gone Girl
d
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
“It completely charmed me as a kid: the clever mystery, the complex characters (especially the grownups—who knew they had lives too?) and the nasty, fantastic TabithaRuth Wexler. I still read it once a year.”
WorldMags.net
The Culture | Books
TOP 10:
YOUNG ADULT
AGES 12 AND UP
1 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie’s coming-of-age novel (illustrated by Ellen Forney) illuminates family and heritage through young Arnold Spirit,
torn between his life on a reservation and his largely white high school. The specifics are sharply drawn, but this novel, with its themes of self-
discovery, speaks to young readers everywhere.
2 Harry Potter (series) What more can be said about J.K. Rowling’s iconic franchise? How about this: seven years after the final volume was published, readers young and old still go crazy at the slightest rumor of a new Potter story.
3 The Book Thief For many young readers, Markus Zusak’s novel provides their first in-depth contemplation of the Holocaust. Although terror surrounds Liesel, a young German girl, so too does evidence of friendship, love and charity—redeeming lights in the darkness.
4 A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle’s surrealist adventure has provided generations of children with their first-ever mindblowing experiences, as Meg travels across the fifth dimension in search of her father. But the sci-fi also has a message: Meg learns self-sufficiency and bravery in the process.
5 Charlotte’s Web Readers are still drawn to the simplicity and beauty of
arachnid Charlotte’s devotion to her pig pal Wilbur. Though family farms may be less common than they were in 1952, E.B. White’s novel remains timeless for its enduring meditation on the power of friendship and of good writing.
6 Holes Louis Sachar’s story of a family curse, fancy sneakers and poisonous lizards moves forward and backward through time, telling of how Stanley Yelnats IV ended up in a juvenile prison camp. It’s an introduction to complex narrative, suffused with fun, warmth and a truly memorable villain.
7 Matilda With apologies to the lovable Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this may be Roald Dahl’s most compelling read for young
MICHAEL LEWIS
author of Flash Boys
d
The Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon
“As a kid I lived on a steady diet of The Hardy Boys and Archie comic books, without the slightest sense there was anything better I might be doing with my time.”
people. Poor Matilda feels thwarted and ignored by her family—a sense that many preteens share.
They don’t share her magical powers, but that’s the enduring appeal of this escapist frolic.
8 The Outsiders Published when author S.E. Hinton was just 18, this coming- of-age novel offers proof that even the youngest writer can provide valuable insight. Her striking look at Ponyboy and gang life in the 1960s has resonated for decades with
readers of all kinds, whether they identify more with the Greasers or the Socs.
9 The Phantom Tollbooth In a witty, sharp fairy tale that illuminates language and mathematics through a picaresque story of adventure in the Kingdom of Wisdom, Jules Feiffer’s whimsical drawings do as much as Norton Juster’s plain-language interpolations of complex ideas
to carry readers through Digitopolis and the Mountains of Ignorance.
10 The Giver Lois Lowry’s tale of self-discovery in a dystopian society has a memorable central character, Jonas, and an indelible message—that pain and trauma have an important place in individual lives and in society, and to forget them is to lose what makes us human.
—daniel d’addario
AND 15 MORE
Are You There God?
It’s Me, Margaret
Judy Blume
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor
62 |
WorldMags.net |