Netflix will be the home for Aaron Sorkin’s new film, The Trial of the Chicago 7. It is out on October 16th and Netflix have just released a trailer for it.
In 1968 a group of activists organised a huge demonstration in Grant Park, Chicago to disrupt the Chicago Democratic Convention and protest the Vietnam War. It soon got out of hand and on live TV America got to see clashes between protesters, police and the National Guard as the event nose-dived into violence.
The Department of Justice put the ringleaders on trial for criminal conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot. Framed by counterculture as American citizens being placed on trial for having beliefs the government disapproved of, the trial was controversial, explosive and led to the mobilization of an entire generation of American kids to protest against the war and even the US in general.
Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Frank Langella, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and J.C. Mackenzie co-star in the feature.
Given what is happening in the US right now this could either be seen as incredibly timely, or reckless. Netflix continues to be at the centre of a storm of controversy over screening the Maïmouna Doucouré movie Cuties that critics have accused of sexualising minors and promoting paedophilia.
