Fruitvale Station (2013)

A decade has passed since the events in the film, and it’s more relevant than ever as cops in the US clash with protesters over their treatment of the African-American community.

Michael B Jordan leads the cast in this biographical story of how being born black is a mark against your name. Michael plays Oscar Grant, a man going about what he thinks is an ordinary day. Except it’s not. He’ll be in the wrong place at the wrong time, confronted by the wrong cop and it’s going to cost him his life.

The 2013 movie caused a bidding war between distribution studios after premiering at the Sundance Festival, and it won 33 awards, including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture.

In 2014, theguardian.com’s Alex von Tunzelmann wrote, “Many historical films deal with grand events, like wars. Fruitvale Station is a quiet, unassuming story about the shooting of one ordinary man. In context, it is part of a significant historical story. It is claimed that a black man was killed by police, security guards or self-appointed vigilantes every 28 hours.” Seven years later, little has changed.