Success of Ginsburg film inspiresCNN look at John Lewis
NEWYORK » Indirectly, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg inspired CNN Films’ new documentary on the life of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.
The unexpected commercial success of the “RBG” film in theaters two years ago had CNN looking for another contemporary leader whose life could be seen in historical terms.
The film, which had a limited release this summer and was part of the Tribeca Film Festival, premieres on television Sunday at 9 p.m. on CNN.
As Erika Alexander, a producer of “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” put it, he was “more than just someone who crossed a bridge and got hit in the head.”
The footage that made Lewis a part of history, fromthe 1965march in Alabama, is of course a big part of the film. Knocked to the ground and beaten by police for crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma as part of a civil rightsmarch, Lewis thought hewas going to die that day.
Invited into the movement after writing a letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis participated in Freedom Rides. He was leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and spoke from the stage during the historic March on Washington, after elders edited the young firebrand’s speech to tone it down.
That was all before a 33year career in Congress that ended with his death in July at age 80.