Release plans for Africatown documentary “Descendant” might look like a slow burn, but weekend comments from Barack and Michelle Obama show there’s some real heat behind the project.
The film directed by Mobile native Margaret Brown, and co-written by Brown and University of South Alabama professor Kern Jackson, premiered in January at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. It won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and was snapped up by Netflix and the Obamas’ Higher Ground Production Company.
The film tells the story of the slave ship Clotilda’s final voyage, but focuses more on the Africatown community founded by the survivors of the voyage.
Over the weekend, a delegation including Brown, Jackson and at least two representatives of the Africatown community, Joycelyn Davis and Veda Tunstall, traveled to Massachusetts for the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. There, as reported by Variety, the Obamas made a surprise appearance to celebrate the film.
The former president and first lady made clear that “Descendant” was not just another product for their company to distribute.
“When we left the White House, Michelle and I talked about the things we wanted to do post-presidency,” Barack Obama said, according to Variety. “We’ve got a lot of stuff going on, but one of the things that we learned both when we were campaigning for office and taking office was the importance of stories and who tells stories and what stories are valid and what stories are discounted. … Because we believe that everybody’s stories matter. Everybody’s got a sacred story that motivates us, moves us. It’s not just a matter of nostalgia, it powers us into the present and the future.”
“When we screened this… we looked at it and immediately thought, ‘This is why we’re doing Higher Ground,’” said Michelle Obama. “We have to tell our stories to our younger folks. We have to be the ones, we cannot follow that tradition of keeping our pain silent, because what this film shows us is our stories are the power that makes us seen.”
Since Sundance, little has emerged about release plans, other than that Netflix aims to make “Descendant” available later this year. Jackson said Monday that he couldn’t add much to that, but said he thinks the “rock star” treatment at the Martha’s Vineyard festival provides some insight into Netflix’s thinking.
I think what the plan is, what these media companies like to do is, they like to build momentum,” he said. “I think the Variety [coverage] just lit a fuse for us. Because documentaries don’t get this kind of treatment and funding behind them in terms of the marketing.”
The filmmakers will be taking “Descendant” to other festivals over the next few months, he said, but the Martha’s Vineyard experience may be one of a kind. Jackson said it included some surreal moments, like finding himself “comparing notes” with author and producer Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of Spike Lee.
“That’s something, to be sitting, having a cocktail, talking shop about how to represent Black life and culture on film in ways that are authentic and useful,” he said.
Jackson said the Obamas’ comments were “high praise. That’s the seal of approval.”
“He knew who we were, too,” Jackson said. “When he talked to us, he knew about the intricacies of the construction of the film.”
Jackson said he thinks the response is the payoff of a collaborative approach that goes back as far as Brown’s earlier film “Order of Myths.”
“We have had this ongoing conversation on what does it take to be on a team that really functions as a democracy,” Jackson said. “Not having representation just for representation’s sake. Having people with talent come together who are really intimate with the space. I’m really intimate with the space, she’s really intimate with the space, all the characters, the folks from Africatown are really interested in the space and got to contribute because they trusted us.”
That trust resulted in raw footage for a film that could have a deep emotional impact.
Just as Netflix’s general release plans remain unannounced, there’s no word yet on any Mobile-area premiere screenings. One way or another, large or small, there will be something, Jackson said. “It is my genuine hope that around the time that it comes out on Netflix there’s a way for Mobile to celebrate.”
He said he thinks one thing is certain: The release of “Descendant,” along with continued news about research on the Clotilda wreck site and other works related to the Clotilda and the Africatown story, will put a spotlight on Mobile in a way that’s hard to imagine.
“This fall, Mobile, Alabama, is going to be the center of African America,” Jackson said. “Not New Orleans, not New York City, not Los Angeles, not San Francisco, not Toronto, not Kingston. Little old 195,000-people Mobile, Alabama. Where that conversation goes among the 195,000 of us, and what it means for the 195,000 of us, I am excited and looking forward to those conversations.”
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