The Sundace Winner documentary ‘Descendant‘ on the legacy of Slavery is now streaming on Netflix India. This powerful documentary after multiple big wins at International Film Festivals is expected to be a big runner at this year’s award season!
Set in the small Alabama community of Africatown, the film follows the descendants of the survivors of the last slave ship that illegally transported human beings as cargo from Africa to America. The ship named ‘The Clotilda’ is a centuries-old open secret. It is now being pursued by marine archeologists to verify its existence. In 1860, decades after the U.S. banned the practice of human trafficking for enslavement, a ship named the Clotilda docked in Mobile, Alabama. There, it unloaded more than one hundred African souls before being ordered to eradicate the evidence. Although they were freed in 1865, they couldn’t return to their homeland. The survivors later founded Africatown—a testament to their strength. The documentary takes a sensitive look at the descendants of the original survivors and their stories.
Produced by Night Tide production, Higher Ground Productions (Michelle and Barack Obama owned company) acquired the rights to this documentary in January 2022. As a 3 time Best Documentary Feature Winner at the Oscars, Netflix is set to take Descendant to the award season this year in a big way since it acquired the title straight out of Sundace. Descendant is also executive produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who is a descendant of Charlie Lewis, one of the enslaved passengers of The Clotilda.
This very powerful documentary talks a story that deserves to be told and heard. Descendant being an expected award contender is just another reason for our readers to the check the documentary out. Now streaming on Netflix India.