TIFF 2018 Preview: Emilio Estevez’s The Public With Jeffrey Wright, Michael K. Williams and Gabrielle UnionPosted by Wilson Morales
August 31, 2018
Playing at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival will be The Public, written and directed by Emilio Estevez.
Estevez also stars in the film along with Alec Baldwin, Emilio Estevez, Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling, Christian Slater, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Gabrielle Union, Jacob Vargas, Michael K. Williams and Jeffrey Wright.
In “The Public,” an unusually bitter Arctic blast has made its way to downtown Cincinnati and the front doors of the public library where the action of the film takes place. The story revolves around the library patrons, many of whom are homeless, mentally ill and marginalized, as well as an exhausted and overwhelmed staff of librarians who often act as “de-facto social workers” and care for those regular patrons. At odds with library officials over how to handle the extreme weather event, the patrons turn the building into a homeless shelter for the night by staging an “Occupy” sit in.
What begins as an act of civil disobedience becomes a stand-off with police and a rush-to-judgment media constantly speculating about what’s really happening inside the building. The story tackles some of our nation’s most challenging issues, including homelessness and mental illness, and sets the dramedy inside one of the last bastions of democracy-in-action: your public library.
Wright portrays the head city librarian in Cincinnati, with Williams taking the role of a homeless person who leads the Occupy action in the library. Union plays an ambitious television news reporter who uses the event as a way to bolster ratings for the network as well her own personal profile.
