Lee Daniel’s “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” starring Golden Globe winner and Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Andra Day, is out on Hulu right now. Though critics were mixed on the film, most agreed that it relies on the strength of Day’s outstanding performance. Now the streaming platform has released a brand-new special look music video which sees
Day play as Angela Davis, a real-life civil rights icon.
In the one-shot music video titled “Tigress & Tweed,” Day portrays Davis in the historic 1972 interview from a California State Prison cell. The interview, captured in The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975, features Davis in an orange turtleneck, elegantly eviscerating questions from a Swedish journalist about the use of violence by members of the Black Panthers as a means of survival.
Here’s the official plot synopsis for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday:”
“The legendary Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe. Beginning in the 1940’s in New York City, the federal government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart-wrenching ballad, “Strange Fruit.” Led by Oscar® nominated director Lee Daniels and introducing Golden Globe® winner and Grammy® nominated singer-songwriter Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday unapologetically presents the icon’s complicated, irrepressible life. Screenplay writer Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, pens this intimate tale of a fierce trailblazer whose defiance through music helped usher in the civil rights movement. NAACP Image Award® Nominee Trevante Rhodes and Emmy® Nominee Natasha Lyonne co-star along with Garrett Hedlund, Miss Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Evan Ross, Tyler James Williams, Tone Bell, and Erik LaRay Harvey.”
“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is currently available for streaming on Hulu
