Lena Waithe debuts ‘Queen & Slim’ movie clip and talks about giving Black victims of police brutality a voice

Jul 8, 2019

Lena Waithe hit the Essence Fest to show a 13-minute clip of her provocative new film ‘Queen & Slim’ about a fatal police encounter and spoke about the impact of producing a piece of art that silences the oppressor.

—Lena Waithe’s ‘Queen & Slim’ movie trailer about fatal police encounter released—

The film and gives off major Bonnie & Clyde vibes as it follows the story of a ride-or-die couple forced to hit the road after a traffic stop turns tragic. The couple kill a cop in self-defense and flee instead of turning themselves in.

“I wanted to give voice to all the nameless faceless men and women of color whose lives were taken unjustly and who didn’t make it home. I actually refer to them as fallen soldiers but unfortunately, they were fighting a war they didn’t know they were in,” said Waithe during a Q&A session after the preview of the film, Deadline reports.

“There is so much black deaths surrounding us… I wanted to turn the tables where we could keep breathing and the oppressor didn’t.”

The movie stars Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther) as “Slim” and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith (Syfy’s Nightflyers), as “Queen.”

—Starbucks apologizes after Arizona cops were asked to leave shop for making customer feel “unsafe”—

Queen and Slim hits theaters November 27.