Till tells the powerful story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight for justice after her 14-year-old son Emmett Till was lynched in rural Mississippi in 1955.
The drama from Orion Pictures, MGM Pictures and United Artists Releasing stars Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley and Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till. Chinonye Chukwu directed and co-wrote the script with Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp.
During a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles awards-season event, Beauchamp — who also directed a 2005 documentary on Emmett Till — said it took 29 years to bring the feature film to the screen.
“Hollywood never wanted to touch this film,” Beauchamp told the audience.
As the project finally began to move forward, Chukwu was brought on board. The filmmaker said she knew a key part of the story would be re-creating Emmett’s funeral, where his brutalized body was displayed in an open casket.
“The question for me wasn’t whether or not to show Emmett’s body, but how to show it,” Chukwu said.
For Deadwyler, it was important to portray Mamie’s grief with care. “This was about expressing the love that Mamie had for Emmett, which was what essentially carried her to her last days and what carries us now,” she said.
Hall was 14 when the movie was shot — the same age as Emmett Till when the Chicago teenager was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. During the panel discussion, he revealed he never learned about Emmett Till in school, but his mother shared stories about the horrifying events.
Still, Hall was surprised by the level of detail in the film.
“I hadn’t known the full scope what I was getting into. Coming out of it, I have gotten enlightened further, not only about what happened 67 years ago, but what happens today,” he said. “And how I can do my part.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
