SYNOPSIS

Black Boots is a fictional retelling of true events of the brave men that trained at Montford Point to become the first black Marines in an all white branch of the military during World War II. The story follows a squabbling modern family searching for their disgruntled runaway Grandpa. Along the way, they encounter Grandpa’s estranged friends and gather clues as to what made him so bitter in life.

By reliving the stories of Grandpa's journey through bootcamp in a 1940’s segregated America, the family is able to see and understand the brave and untold stories of the first black Marines in WWII: the Montford Point Marines.

The story of the Montford Point Marines covers four important chapters in American history. The First Boot Camp Chapter, set in 1942, tells the story of first black Recruits arriving at boot camps and being trained by southern racist White Drill Instructors who wanted this "black experiment" to fail. The Second Boot Camp Chapter takes place in 1943 and details the lives of the black Drill Instructors who trained the black Recruits even harder than the white Drill Instructors, because they wanted them to be the best. The story of the Third Boot Camp Chapter happens in 1949 and details how and why the black Marine leadership wanted to keep Montford Point a segregated recruit training unit even when the presidential executive order came down to desegregate. The Fourth and final Chapter takes place in the contemporary lives of the characters that we meet in the earlier three chapters. These chapters intercut to weave an emotional adventure that not only shows the journey of black Americans in Marine history but a history of America itself.

WHY TELL THE STORY?

Who today would risk their lives to fight for a country that treated them as second-class citizens and denied them basic civil rights? The Montford Point Marines did. And it is time for their story to finally be revealed.

Black Boots will represent the historical sacrifices and challenges faced by the nearly 20,000 blacks who enlisted in the Marines between 1942 and 1949, during and after the most brutal war in world history. Black Boots is not just a story of these two men and their families, but it is also the story of America and how the country rose to face the challenge of its own racist past and to create the present in which we now live. It is a story that holds a mirror to a history of segregation, and later desegregation, but also the journey of Black Marines in America from 1942 till present day.

With the guidance and support of the Montford Point Marine Association, and United States Marines, the movie will capture the truth of this buried part of American history that revolves around the lives of the brave black men of Montford Point. The Black Boots film project will be the tribute that these men deserve, shining a spotlight on this little-known, yet extremely important, segment of American history.

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