Watch These Black Celebrities Declare 'My Life Matters' in New Police Brutality Videos
Several Hollywood directors, actors and TV personalities joined the Movement for Black Lives on Friday, releasing a series of new anti-police brutality videos that commemorate the victims of fatal encounters with law enforcement.
"Creed" director Ryan Coogler and "Selma" director Ava DuVernay, along with actors David Oyelowo and La La Anthony, among others, debuted the series, "My Life Matters" on YouTube. In the videos, the stars take turns relating personally to police violence victims whose names have energized a national movement against racial profiling, excessive use of force and underlying socioeconomic inequality.
The release of the video series comes amid increased tensions between black activists and police nationally, following the officer-involved shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in early July, as well as the fatal attacks on officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Movement for Black Lives and activists in the Black Lives Matter network staged a sit-in at police union headquarters in New York City and Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, as part of an end-of-week campaign titled "#FreedomNow."
Coogler and Oyelowo appear in the first of three videos.
Anthony and DuVernay appear in the second video.
Actors Andre Holland and Boris Kodjoe appear in the third installment of #MyLifeMatters.
In a press statement, Blackout for Human Rights, the producer of the #MyLifeMatters video series, said its collective of concerned African-American directors and actors released the videos in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives.
The series also comes one week after Mic partnered with Alicia Keys, Beyoncé and other celebrities on the #23Ways campaign that calls out the ways black men, women and boys have died at the hands of police.
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