Powerful first trailer of Emmett Till biopic shows his mother’s fight for justice

14-year-old Emmett Till’s brutal murder by white men in 1955 Mississippi sparked the civil rights movement

MGM Studios has released the first trailer for its forthcoming biopic Till.

The new film – releasing in select cinemas on 14 October and on general release 28 October – tells the true story of 14-year-old Emmett Till and his mother’s fight for justice after his brutal murder by white men.

In 1955, Emmett was visiting cousins in Mississippi when he was falsely accused by a white woman (Carolyn Bryant Donham) of grabbing her waist and making sexual advances against her at a grocery store she owned with her husband Roy.

A few days later, Roy Bryant and his half-brother JW Milam then armed themselves to kidnap Till before torturing, beating and shooting him in the head and sinking his body into the Tallahatchie River. His body was discovered three days later.

Following a murder trial, an all-white jury acquitted the men. Months later, they admitted to their crimes in an interview with Look magazine.

It was Emmett’s death and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight for justice that galvanised the civil rights movement.

Till’s debut trailer, released today (25 July), opens with Emmett’s mother (Danielle Deadwyler) tearfully saying, “This was my boy, Emmett Till”.

Jalyn Hall in ‘Till’ (MGM Studios)

It continues with Emmett (Jalyn Hall) as he prepares to visit his cousins before jumping through the timeline of events leading up to his death.

Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, the movie also stars Whoopi Goldberg, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, and Sean Patrick Thomas.

During a recent press conference, according to Entertainment Weekly, Chukwu had said it was “important” to the project “that we see, feel and hear [Emmett] be a boy before what would inevitably happen to him.”

Till is scheduled to release in select cinemas on 14 October, followed by a general release on 28 October.