By Daniel Trotta
April 25 (Reuters) - Following one of the most consequential
court cases in recent U.S. history, Hollywood wasted no time in
reflecting on the state of race relations and police use of
force in Sunday's Academy Awards show.
The theme was revisited several more times, injecting
politics into a broadcast seen around the world.
"I have to be honest, if things had gone differently this
past week in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels for
marching boots," Regina King, the presenter who opened the show,
said at the start of the broadcast.
She was referring to the conviction on Tuesday of former
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, found guilty by a jury
of all three charges in the death of George Floyd: second-degree
murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The case has rocked the United States ever since cellphone
video of the incident on May 25, 2020, went viral. The video
showed Chauvin, a white veteran of the police force, pushing his
knee into the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in
handcuffs, for more than nine minutes.
"As a mother of a black son, I know the fear that so many
live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that," said
King, who directed "One Night in Miami," a film set in 1964 and
dealing with the civil rights issues of that time.
Actress and deaf activist Marlee Matlin, in introducing the
documentary awards, mentioned Darnella Frazier, the young woman
who shot the cellphone video of Floyd's death, which led to
months of protests across the United States and beyond.
"Their impact can be extraordinary. Whether it's a full
length feature film or a cell phone video taken by a young woman
in Minneapolis by the name of Darnella Frazier that became a
catalyst for change," Matlin said in sign language that was
spoken by an interpreter.
Travon Free, a co-winner of the Oscar for live-action short,
leveraged his big moment to address police use of force. His
winning film, "Two Distant Strangers," is about a man stuck in a
time loop that forced him to relive a deadly run-in with a
police officer.
"Today, the police will kill three people, and tomorrow the
police will kill three people, and the day after that police
will kill three people, because on average the police in America
everyday kill three people," said Free, who shared the award
with Martin Desmond Roe.
Free went on to quote the late writer James Baldwin that it
was "despicable" to be indifferent to other people's pain.
"And so I just ask that you please not be indifferent.
Please don't be indifferent to our pain," said Free, who while
on the red carpet before the show opened his jacket to show it
lined with the names of people killed by police.
Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry spoke against hate during
his acceptance of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award,
recounting the impact that major civil rights cases of the past
had on his mother in the heavily segregated South.
"My mother taught me to refuse hate," Perry said.
He listed those he refused to hate, such as people of color
and LGBTQ people, but he also extended a hand to police.
"I refuse to hate someone because they are a police
officer," Perry said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)