The limited theatrical release Friday of the independent film Fruitvale Station amidst the closing arguments of the George Zimmerman trial have caused controversy among the public. The film, the first one by writer and director Ryan Coogler, was in Sundance Film Festival last year and won top jury and audience prizes.
The film is a true story of 22-year-old African American man Oscar Grant, from Oakland, California, who was unarmed and committed no crime but was shot and killed by a BART police officer on January 1, 2009. It’s no secret that a similar story happening recently in the news, the Zimmerman trial, is helping the publicity of the film.
Mercury News reports that the studio that developed the film, Weinstein Company, says they were not intending the limited release of the film to connect with the trial or affect it in any way.
According to Fox many people disagree with the release because they think it is a biased outlook and will cause an unfair outcome of the trial
“Hollywood only believes a person is innocent if they are liberal or one of the many approved minority groups," said Dan Gainor, Vice Preisdent of Business and Culture at the Media Research Center. “Of course, the trailer includes the classic movie get-out-of-jail-free line: ‘based on a true story.’ That means they can make up as much as they want and then sell it to the public as truth.”