Watch The SELMA Video for John Legend and Common’s “Glory”

Paramount Pictures has released the new lyric video for the Golden Globe nominated song “Glory” from John Legend and Common.

SELMA is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.

The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Director Ava DuVernay’s SELMA tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

The film stars David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi Common, Carmen Ejogo, Lorraine Toussaint, with Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey as “Annie Lee Cooper.”

First time Golden Globe nominee DuVernay says she tried to hew to the essence of the events as people who were there remember them. “My approach was to tell the truth as best we could, because the actual facts of what happened, the actual people who were there, are more fascinating than anything you could make up,” the director says.

“There are no composite characters in this film. Everyone you see in this film really lived, really struggled, really did these things. They are so compelling that there was no reason to make anything up. I leaned into the idea that my role was literally just to be a teller of their tale. I felt I was a translator just trying to get into the inner being of these men and women.”

At the same time, she sought a visceral immediacy to connect with today’s audiences. “Sometimes you can get dragged down by a historical drama, but this story is also contemporary. It’s of now. It’s really about something universal that applies to people of different genders, races and religions. We’ve all been made to feel barriers at some time – and this is a film about people triumphing over barriers.”

Left to right: David Oyelowo (as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) with Director/Executive Producer Ava DuVernay and Producer Oprah Winfrey (who also plays Annie Lee Cooper) on the set of SELMA, from Paramount Pictures, Pathé, and Harpo Films. (c) 2014 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

SELMA opens in Select Theaters December 25, 2014
In All Theaters January 9, 2015

Visit the film’s official site: http://www.selmamovie.com/