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Africatown is a tight-knit community just north of Mobile, Alabama. Many of its residents are the direct descendants of more than 100 Africans who were brought to America in 1860 as captives on a ship known as the Clotilda. The international slave trade had been outlawed in the United States decades earlier in 1808, but the Clotilda illegally set sail, galvanized by a bet that enslaver Timothy Meaher would not be able to do it. Once the smuggled captives were brought to Alabama, they were sold into slavery; after the Civil War, a number of them worked together to purchase the land that would eventually become Africatown.
The documentary “Descendant” tells the story of descendants of the survivors from Clotilda as they celebrate their heritage and take command of their legacy, as the discovery of the remains of the last-known slave ship to arrive in the United States offers them a tangible link to their ancestors. The film is available on Netflix Watch Descendant | Netflix Official Site.
Panelists:
· Margaret L. Brown, “Descendant” writer, director, and producer;
· Dr. Kern Jackson, “Descendant” co-writer and co-producer;
· Emmett Lewis, Jr., a descendant of Cudjo Lewis; and
· Veda Rose Tunstall, a descendant of Pollee and Rose Allen.
About Margaret Brown
Margaret Brown’s documentary work examines the American South,
from a seminal film on Townes Van Zandt “Be Here to Love Me,”
to the impactful story of the BP oil spill’s lasting impact
“The Great Invisible,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW
a few years ago. Her film “The Order of Myths,” which
examined Brown’s native Mobile, Alabama and its still
segregated Mardi Gras celebration, won numerous awards including
a Peabody and the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award.
She’s also done short form work for the New York Times and
Field of Vision, and recently directed an episode of “Dirty
Money” for Netflix.
Brown’s documentary film, “Descendant,” explores issues of
equity and justice facing descendants of the last US slave ship
Clotilda, as well as the discovery of the sunken ship in 2019. It
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022. The
film began its distribution in 2022 by Netflix and Higher Ground,
the film production company of former president Barack Obama and
Michelle Obama.