The director of “Selma” pushed back this week against a screed attacking the film by a former assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, calling the views “jaw dropping and offensive.”
Former Johnson aide Joseph A. Califano Jr. blasted the Martin Luther King, Jr. movie an op-ed in the Washington Post on Friday, claiming it unfairly portrayed his onetime boss in an negative light.
“The movie should be ruled out this Christmas and during the ensuing awards season,” he wrote, saying that the historic civil rights march in the film was actually “LBJ’s idea.”
Director Ava DuVernay was not convinced by his argument. Replying to a critic’s tweet mentioning the Califano op-ed on Sunday, DuVernay took the ex-official to task:
I can argue, @HitFixGregory. Notion that Selma was LBJ’s idea is jaw dropping and offensive to SNCC, SCLC and black citizens who made it so.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014
More detail here. LBJ’s stall on voting in favor of War on Poverty isn’t fantasy made up for a film. “@donnabrazile: http://t.co/dT4Mp4Em5j.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014
Bottom line is folks should interrogate history. Don’t take my word for it or LBJ rep’s word for it. Let it come alive for yourself. #Selma
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014
