Popkin/Courtesy of HBO

ActivismFilm / TV

new hbo doc to chronical the activism of the equal justice initiative, bryan stevenson

April 30, 2019

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality chronicles the activism of the Equal Justice Initiative’s founder Bryan Stevenson and his struggles to create greater fairness for Black people in historically disenfranchising systems while confronting America’s hateful past by revealing raw truths about how racial injustice was formed, flourished, and continues to harm POC. In the doc, which is set to premiere June 26 on HBO, Stevenson is followed during the opening of EGI’s groundbreaking lynching memorial and the two-day commemoration event at the Montgomery Riverwalk Amphitheater that followed.

“An intimate portrait of this remarkable man, (the documentary) follows his struggle to create greater fairness in the system and shows how racial injustice emerged, evolved and continues to threaten the country, challenging viewers to confront it,” says HBO in a press release.

As a public interest attorney in Alabama, Stevenson spent more than three decades advocating for low-income, underrepresented and incarcerated individuals who had been failed by the system due to racial discrimination and an unjust criminal system. A system that Stevenson says “treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

“I’m grateful to HBO and Kunhardt Films for their interest in our work,” says Stevenson. “We have ignored our nation’s history of racial inequality and the unfairness of our criminal justice for far too long. I am persuaded that if we commit to challenging racial injustice, poverty and abuse of power, we can achieve a more just society. I hope films like this can contribute to that goal.”

Related