Watch Maya Angelou Recite 'Still I Rise' In New Biopic Trailer
As one of the most important poets and writers in American history, Maya Angelou's work is still read and praised to this day. So it only makes sense that she's finally getting a feature film based around life and timeless impact.
Although we've been aware of Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise for awhile, today marks the day in which we get not only a trailer for the film but a release date.
"Everybody in the world uses words. The writer has to take these most known things and put them together in such a way that a reader says I never thought about it that way before," Angelou says as the trailer begins. From there the trailer goes into a traumatic childhood experience Angelou had that ultimately shaped her into the iconic writer that she became.
"When I reach for the pen to write I have to scrape it across those scars," Angelou says in an archived interview. The trailer weaves together these rare and archived moments seamlessly, using photographs and home videos and movies, to tell us Angelou's story.
From her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her travels with Malcolm X in Ghana to her inaugural speech for President Bill Clinton, we are given so much of Angelou's life in a way that has never been shown to us before.
The film features interviews from prominent figures including Oprah Winfrey, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson, Common, former President Bill Clinton, and current Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Directed by Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack, And Still I Rise was partly crowd-funded via Kickstarter back in October of last year. Now, it's great to see that the movie has not only made appearances at film festivals across the world (it made its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival), but that it'll be hitting the big screen everywhere soon.
And Still I Rise is set for limited theatrical release on October 14, 2016. Check out the trailer below.
