Official Trailer for Doc Film ‘Kaepernick & America’ About His Protest
by Alex Billington
August 26, 2022
Source: YouTube
“It was so much bigger than football.” Dark Star has revealed an official trailer for a documentary titled Kaepernick & America, which first premiered at the Seattle Film Festival and then played at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. It’s releasing on VOD to watch next week for anyone interested. Kaepernick & America explores the intersection between Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protests and the extreme reactions they spurred in the United States over the last few years, revealing unique insights into America’s ongoing racial turmoil and obsession with white supremacy. The powerful documentary “examines the man and his protest, exploring the remarkable conflict stirred by such a simple gesture.” Ever since he started to oppose police brutality, civil rights activist and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s actions have reverberated worldwide as shown in this doc. I also think Ava DuVernary’s Kaepernick series Colin in Black & White is fantastic and worth watching, and probably pairs well with this film, too. Get a look below.
Here’s the trailer (+ poster) for Walker & Hockrow’s doc Kaepernick & America, direct from YouTube:
It was the summer of 2016, an election year with unrest rumbling through America. There were countless triggers – the murder videos of Philando Castille and Alton Sterling, the counterpunch of Alt-Right and Fake News, Black Lives Matter, Russian meddling – a discordant national cauldron ready to boil over. It was the birth of Trumpism, but no knew it yet. Then, Colin Kaepernick took a knee and America lost its mind. Kaep’s knee touched down on the divide between America’s Black and white tectonic plates, creating an earthquake in the eternal race debate. The aftershocks of his singular gesture have already rippled through our country for years. Kaepernick himself answered any and all thoughtful questions for a time, then stopped talking. And the resulting quiet has allowed for a thoughtful examination of the man and his story. It reveals layer upon layer of surprises and contradictions. Raised in a white family, he became a Black quarterback, while in fact, he is an adopted, biracial man. Inherently shy, he became the center of attention. The man that everyone was talking about was mostly silent. He took a stand by taking a knee.
Kaepernick & America is co-directed by doc filmmakers Tommy Walker (co-director of God Grew Tired of Us, and producer on many other docs) & Ross Hockrow (director of the doc Born Strong, and editor on many other doc films / series), directing their first feature together. Produced by Bill Stephney, Gary Cohen, and Matt McDonald. Executive produced by Don Lemon and John Battsek. This recently premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. Dark Star Pictures will release the doc Kaepernick & America streaming on VOD / digital everywhere starting on September 2nd, 2022 this fall. Who wants to watch?
