Why ‘American Son’ Director Kenny Leon Is ‘Radically Optimistic’ Amid Unrest Over Racial Injustice (Video)
This story about Kenny Leon first appeared in the Limited Series & Movies issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine. It took eight minutes and 46 seconds for the world to change. It took watching an eight minute, 46 second video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, killing him, for some people to open their eyes to the injustices and horror that Black American’s face and fear everyday. Some of us have known all our lives. Kenny Leon, the director of Netflix’s “American Son,” is one of those people. Leon won the Tony in 2014 for his direction of Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun.” “American Son,” based on the Broadway play of the same name — which Leon also directed and former trial lawyer Christopher Demos-Brown wrote, is an all too familiar story. It follows a Black mother, played by Kerry Washington, and the pain she bears during one night in a police station while she and her estranged white husband try to figure out what happened to their missing Black son, who it turns out may or may not be in police custody after a traffic stop. Also Read: Kerry Washington Says...
Read original story Why ‘American Son’ Director Kenny Leon Is ‘Radically Optimistic’ Amid Unrest Over Racial Injustice (Video) At TheWrap
