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The Treatment

Ryan Coogler: Fruitvale Station

The Treatment

KCRW

Arts

4.6639 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2013

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On New Years Day 2009, Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a transit officer at the Fruitvale BART station. Four years later, first-time director Ryan Coogler tells his story.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From KCRW, Santa Monica and KCRW.com, this is The Treatment.

0:14.9

I'm Elvis Mitchell. Welcome to the treatment. My guest, writer, director, Ryan Coogler,

0:19.6

has had a pretty interesting year this year.

0:21.3

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, he was welcomed by winning the Grand Jury Prize for

0:26.3

Dramatic Film and also the Audience Award. At the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Uncertain

0:31.9

Regarra Competition, he won Best First Film for his Film Fruitvale Station. It's a pleasure to

0:36.7

have him here. Ryan,

0:42.9

thank you so much for doing this. Thanks for having me, Elvis. Oh, please. You know, one of the things that I was so impressed with the movie is the way you play around with time. But before we get

0:48.3

to start, I want to have you tell the audience what they're going to see when they see Fruitvale Station.

0:52.7

Foodvale Station is a film that's based on the last day in life of Oscar Grant,

0:57.8

who was a 22-year-old African-American male in the Bay Area,

1:01.3

who was shot and killed at the Fruitville Barc Station in Oakland, California.

1:05.5

He was shot by transit officer early morning hours of New Year's Day, 2009.

1:16.6

You cast Michael B. Jordan, the leader people may know from Friday Night Lights or Parenthood or Chronicle, and you've also got Octavia Spencer in the film and Melanie Diaz and the producer,

1:22.6

when the producers is Forrest Whitaker. I mean, I got dizzy just hearing about the film before I even saw it.

1:28.6

I mean, you put all this talent together. Talk to me about what you want your Oscar to be.

1:34.7

I wanted him to be a complete human being. I really wanted to look at him through the eyes of the people that knew him the best, you know, through the eyes of the relationships that had the most value for him and the

1:46.4

people who he was most valuable too. And so oftentimes doing a lot of situations like this,

1:51.4

you know, when people lose their lives and officer involved shootings, especially as of late,

1:55.1

the cases and the surrounding things become politicized, you know, and in that, people jump on

2:00.3

two different sides of the fence, you know, that the person deserved what happened to him, you know, and in that, people would jump on two different sides of the fence,

2:01.3

you know, that the person deserved what happened to him, you know, and Oscar was, was no exception

...

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