Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
R U S T I N | P E R S P E C T I V E 8 9 I didn't know who Bayard Rustin was when I heard that George C. Wolfe would be directing a film about him. What I learned was that most people didn't know who Bayard was, even though President Obama had posthumously bestowed upon him the Medal of Freedom for his work as a towering civil rights hero and the chief organizer of the March on Washington in 1963. I had designed Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for George, so I assumed I would get a call about the project, and in short order I did. In addition, my friend Tonia Davis was now running Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground, and would produce the film for them with Bruce Cohen. All good things so far. I had previously designed All the Way, an HBO movie concerning Lyndon Johnson's passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of '64 and '65. In a way, this project felt like a direct prequel to that history and an extension to my experience and participation in telling these stories. I've done more than a few "bio films"— from Julia Child to James Brown to Jack Kevorkian, among others, and while this has occurred more from happenstance than by design, I've found a certain satisfaction in doing the research on these fascinating people and bringing their worlds back to life. I was enthusiastic to now add Bayard Rustin to the list. Straight away I saw how personal his world would be to me. Early in the script, "Bayard makes his way up 8th Avenue before turning onto 23rd" headed home. I happen to live two blocks from this very intersection in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. His apartment was described as middle income and having a balcony. "Where the hell is that?" I thought and literally looked out my window to see the towers of the Penn South Housing Complex—a series of uneventful brick apartment buildings I passed almost daily without paying them any attention. Wikipedia told me that construction was sponsored by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, which had proposed a slum clearance project in 1959. A contentious relocation occurred for 2,646 families into new housing, construction began in 1960 and John F. Kennedy dedicated the new complex in 1962. Bayard Rustin moved into one of the brand-new units that year and lived there until his death in 1987. My journey into Bayard's life had begun and already I M o d e s t E n v i r o n m e n t s f o r M o n u m e n t a l E v e n t s R U S T I N B Y M A R K R I C K E R , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A. MARCH HEADQUARTERS COURTYARD. SKETCHUP MODEL BY TRAVIS KERR OF BROWNSTONE BACK WALL BUILT IN PITTSBURGH LOCATION. B. MARCH HEADQUARTERS COURTYARD. PRODUCTION STILL.