YouTube Vignettes Courtesy Annapurna Pictures
The verisimilitude of the film is stunning and audiences will feel as if they are eye witnesses. A report of gunshots near a National Guard staging area during the week of a violent urban uprising attracted the attention of a horde of Detroit police officers, the Michigan State Police officers, Michigan Army National Guardsmen and a local private security guard. An annex of the nearby Algiers Motel was stormed. Several police officers interrogated motel guests and torture them to intimidate them into confessing. No one confessed. State Police and National Guardsmen, witnessing the beginning moments of the torture, retreated and left the scene. Three unarmed innocent men were killed execution style by police and several other males, black, and two women, white, were beaten and manhandled.
Below are three YouTube vignettes featuring the real life characters from the ugly episode of American history and the actors who portrayed them in the film.
In this vignette, Melvin Dismukes, the security guard who accompanied the police and the National Guardk at the Algiers Hotel annex and Actor, John Boyega who portrayed him.
In this vignette, U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, who has been a militant Congressional supporter of civil liberties and civil rights, portrayed by Actor Laz Alonso.
In this vignette, Larry Cleveland Reed, the lead singer in The Dramatics, portrayed in the movie portrayed by Actor Algee Smith.