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A group of Black residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, have filed a lawsuit against Trilith, a prominent production studio where Marvel has a contract and its neighboring town, alleging discrimination, racial profiling, and retaliation. The major film hub and development are the brainchild of Dan Cathy, the billionaire leader of Chick-fil-A.
Located 20 minutes outside Atlanta, Trilith has been lauded as a new model for Hollywood. Its state-of-the-art studios and production vendors are only a golf cart ride away from its new-urbanist community, where those in the industry have access to green space, micro homes, an autonomous grocery store, and a coworking space. The town and studio have marketed themselves as an open, inclusive, diverse community for all types of people, and have capitalized on such a reputation. But Black residents and former workers say they were sold a false promise and that they were treated differently because of the color of their skin, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation by this reporter last month.
Now, four of them are suing Trilith Studios and Town because they have “experienced constant instances of racially motivated discriminatory acts, such as being negatively stereotyped and racially profiled by Trilith Defendants’ employees and agents,” according to the suit filed Tuesday night, obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast. After speaking out in the community and to the media, they allege that they were “stalked, harassed, subjected to intimidation,” and grew concerned for their safety.
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