Following news that the award-winning documentary “Descendant” will screen as an official selection at the 60th New York Film Festival, Variety can exclusively announce that the film will launch Oct. 21 on Netflix and in select theaters.
Directed by Margaret Brown, the documentary follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship illegally carrying enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship arrived in America 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense. It was promptly burned and its existence denied, but now, as the documentary’s logline explains, “after a century shrouded in secrecy and speculation, descendants of the Clotilda’s survivors are reclaiming their story.”
The documentary made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the U.S. special jury award for creative vision.
Directed by Margaret Brown, the documentary follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship illegally carrying enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship arrived in America 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense. It was promptly burned and its existence denied, but now, as the documentary’s logline explains, “after a century shrouded in secrecy and speculation, descendants of the Clotilda’s survivors are reclaiming their story.”
The documentary made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the U.S. special jury award for creative vision.
- 8/9/2022
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
The 2022 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (Mvaaff) kicked off Friday with great pomp and circumstance — and a few bars of “Hail to the Chief” — as Barack and Michelle Obama made a special appearance for the opening night screening of Netflix documentary “Descendant.”
When Netflix acquired worldwide rights to the Sundance award-winning documentary in January, the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground signed on to present the feature alongside the streamer and Participant. The documentary, which earned the U.S. special jury award for creative vision at Sundance, is set to launch on the streamer later this year.
Directed by Margaret Brown, the documentary follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship carrying enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship arrived in America 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense.
When Netflix acquired worldwide rights to the Sundance award-winning documentary in January, the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground signed on to present the feature alongside the streamer and Participant. The documentary, which earned the U.S. special jury award for creative vision at Sundance, is set to launch on the streamer later this year.
Directed by Margaret Brown, the documentary follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship carrying enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship arrived in America 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense.
- 8/6/2022
- by Angelique Jackson and Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Early in Margaret Brown’s exquisite new documentary “Descendant,” Africatown, Al resident Joycelyn Davis calls out the possible narrative pitfalls of chronicling the recovery of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States in 1860 — 50 years after the international slave trade was abolished. Just after a town hall in which marine archeologist Dr. James Delgado and his team introduce efforts aimed at recovering the long-lost ship, Davis remarks, “I don’t want the momentum of the story to be focused on the ship” before pausing to consider the influx of attention, money, and, ultimately, confrontations that could come with the Clotilda’s discovery.
Continue reading ‘Descendant’ Review: Stunning Documentary Presents a Layered History of the Clotilda Slave Ship and Africatown [Sundance] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Descendant’ Review: Stunning Documentary Presents a Layered History of the Clotilda Slave Ship and Africatown [Sundance] at The Playlist.
- 1/22/2022
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Playlist
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