Mike Colter is taking on Big Oil in the biopic I’m Charlie Walker, coming to theaters, On Demand and Digital June 10. In the exclusive clip below, Colter addresses the racial power dynamics that work against him in the fight for recognition from the oil industry.

Colter plays the titular character, a man who completed a Herculean task in 1971–cleaning up a beach from a major oil spill all by himself. But the oil industry refused to give him his just due. According to the official description:

In the early morning of Jan. 18, 1971, two tankers owned by Standard Oil collided under the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling 800,000 gallons of oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay. It would be the largest oil spill in Bay Area history, and an event that changed Charlie’s life forever.

After the spill, 99 percent of the workers were unionized white truckers, hired to clean up the city’s major tourist draws, but through sheer luck and persistence, Walker landed a contract to clean up distant Stinson Beach in Marin. He got the job none of the white truckers wanted nor did they want to take orders from a Black man. His smarts and tenacity rubbed a lot of “white folks” the wrong way, for simply for being present.

Despite constant racial tensions, 5 million Dollars and 30 days later Charlie managed to clean up the coastline in record time to the States satisfaction. The oil company continued to harass Charlie all the way to criminal court. Charlie Walker is an 88 year old living legend that fought the system and won.

Along with Colter stars Dylan Baker, Safiya Fredericks, Carl Lumbly, Steven Wiig, Mark Leslie Ford, Greg Cipes, Emma Caulfield Ford and Monica Barbaro.

FAMM Films serves as producer with William O’Keeffe as executive producer. Charlie Walker and Mike Regen serve as producers with Mark Harris as associate producer.

I'm Charlie Walker

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