The New 411
The DuSable Museum of African American History will continue its 2019 Ruth E. Carter Historical Film Series with a special screening and discussion of the award-winning film MARSHALL, starring Chadwick Boseman. The event will take place on Saturday, June 1, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum located at 740 East 56th Place (57th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue) in Chicago.
MARSHALL is a 2017 biographical legal drama directed by Reginald Hudlin and written by Michael and Jacob Koskoff. It stars Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and focuses on one of the first cases of his career, the State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell. The film also stars Kate Hudson, Sterling K. Brown, Josh Gad, James Cromwell and features Jussie Smollett and Roger Guenveur Smith.
In 1940, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) is an NAACP lawyer traveling the country defending people of color who are wrongly accused of crimes because of racial prejudice. Upon his return to his New York office, he is sent to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to defend Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), a chauffeur accused of rape by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), in a case that has gripped the newspapers. In Bridgeport, insurance lawyer Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) is assigned by his brother to get Marshall admitted to the local bar, against his will. At the hearing, Judge Foster (James Cromwell), a friend of the prosecutor Lorin Willis (Dan Stevens) agrees to admit Marshall, but forbids Marshall from speaking during the trial, forcing Friedman through notes, such as when he advises Friedman to allow a woman of Southern white descent into the jury because of her assertive and questioning personality. MARSHALL tells the story of how Thurgood Marshall, despite the circumstances, succeeds in winning the case and goes on to have an illustrious career as the Civil Rights Movement’s principal legal strategist and the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
The DuSable Museum of African American History’s Ruth E. Carter Historical Film Series pays tribute to the creative genius of Ruth E. Carter, by screening and discussing not only her costumes and artistic work but also the subject matter of a different film each month from May 2019 through November 2019, culminating in a very special event, which will be announced at a later date.
An Academy Award-winning costume designer for film and television with over 50 films to her credit, Ruth E. Carter has mastered the look of multiple periods and genres in envisioning the clothing and overall appearance of a character or performer. During her almost 30-year career, Carter has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Spike Lee’s biographical film Malcolm X (1992) Steven Spielberg’s historical drama Amistad (1997) and her most recent work on Ryan Coogler’s Marvel superhero film Black Panther (2018), for which she won the Oscar and became the first African American to win an Academy Award in that category.
Ruth E. Carter began her career working as an intern in her hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts, and at the Santa Fe Opera. She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and while working at the Los Angeles Theater Center, she met director Spike Lee who hired her for his second film, School Daze (1988), and with whom she worked on a number of films thereafter, including Do The Right Thing (1989), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). In addition to designing costumes for the films of Spike Lee, Carter has worked with legendary directors such as Steven Spielberg and John Singleton and has dressed actors from Denzel Washington to Josh Brolin and actresses from Angela Bassett to Jane Fonda. Ruth is also known for her work on What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), Sparkle (2012), The Butler (2013) and Selma (2014). Her most recent work was on the Afrofuturist superhero film Black Panther and her costumes were inspired by many traditional African garments, including those of the Maasai and Ndebele people. She traveled to southern Africa to draw aesthetic inspirations and received permission to incorporate traditional Lesotho designs into the film’s costumes.
Admission to this event is free. Please visit www.dusablemuseum.org – or call 773-947-0600 for more information.
About The DuSable Museum of African American History
The DuSable Museum of African American History is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country. Our mission is to promote understanding and inspire appreciation of the achievements, contributions and experiences of African American and African history, culture and art. The DuSable Museum is a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate. For more information on the Museum and its programs, please call 773-947-0600 or visit us at www.dusablemuseum.org. The DuSable Museum of African American History gratefully acknowledges the Chicago Park District’s partnership and also thanks United Airlines, the official airline of the DuSable Museum, for its support
