''Descendant'' is a 2022 American historical

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by

Margaret Brown Margaret Brown (née Tobin; July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932), posthumously known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a survivor of the RMS ''Titanic'', which sank in 1912, and she unsuccess ...

, chronicling the story behind Africatown in Alabama, and the descendants of the last known enslaved Africans brought to the United States aboard the '' Clotilda''. The film premiered at the

2022 Sundance Film Festival The 2022 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20 to 30, 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic in Utah, COVID-19 pandemic protocol, it was initially intended to be an in-person/virtual hybrid festival, but on January 5, 2022, it was announced ...

, where it was picked up for wider distribution by Higher Ground Productions and

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. It received a theatrical release on October 21, 2022 and was available to stream on Netflix that day as well.

Synopsis

In 1808, the United States passed an act of Congress that abolished the international slave trade, making it illegal to bring slaves across the Atlantic ocean and back to America. However, in 1860, the owner of the Clotilda, Timothy Meaher, and his crew started their voyage to Africa. Once arriving, they had purchased and taken well over one hundred slaves. On July 9, 1860, 110 African men, women, and children, survived that voyage and were dropped off at the Mobile Bay in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

. William Foster, the captain, burned the ship and tried to destroy any traces of evidence pertaining to this illegal expedition. Centuries later, the descendants of the slaves on the Clotilda, reside in this town of Mobile, Alabama, now known as Africatown. The descendants have worked to fight for justice and find the Clotilda in the river. The wreckage of the '' Clotilda'' was found in 2019 in the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

of Alabama, and this film explores the community of Africatown and the descendants of some of the last known enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States aboard her 40 years after slave trading had already been deemed a capital offense.

Production and release

After the wreckage of the ''Clotilda'' was discovered, director

spent four years with the residents of Africatown examining how the discovery impacted the lives of descendants of the last known slaves brought to the US. Brown also produced the film alongside Kyle Martin and Essie Chambers for Participant and Take One Five Entertainment. The film premiered at the

, after which it was picked up by Higher Ground Productions and

for theatrical and streaming distribution. It continued on the festival circuit at the SXSW Festival as a Festival Favorite. The film was released to select theaters and on Netflix on October 21, 2022.

Reception

The

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website

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reported an approval rating of 100%, with an average score of 8.4/10, based on 69 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Descendant'' serves as a fantastically compelling example of how history can be reclaimed -- and a stirring tribute to a resilient community." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 88 out of 100 based on 12 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Jake Coyle called it "One of the best films of the year" in his review for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

Accolades

Cast

dit * Theodore Arthur * Gary Autrey * Chris Davis * Joycelyn Davis * Willomina Davis * James Delgado * Bobby Dennison * Mary Elliot * Vivian Davis Figures * Karlos Finley * Mike Fitzgerald * Shiela Flanagan * Anderson Flen * Michael Foster * Patricia Frazier * Vernetta Henson * Fredrik T. Hiebert * Herndon Inge * Kern Jackson * Cleon Jones * Lisa Jones * Mae Jones * Annah Lewis * Ayanna Lewis * Emmett Lewis * Rayla Lewis * Robert Lewis * Garry Lumbers * Ralphema Lumbers

Producers

dit * Louis Black as associate producer * Margaret Brown as producer * Essie Chambers as producer * Shawn Gee as executive producer * Kate Hurwitz as executive producer * Kern Jackson as co-producer * Kristen Mann as line producer * Kyle Martin as producer * Christine Mattsson as co-executive producer * Questlove as executive producer * Jeff Skoll as executive producer * Tariq Trotter as executive producer * Diane Weyermann as executive producer * Zarah Zohlman as executive producer

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, tt16376494 2020s English-language films 2022 documentary films 2022 films American documentary films Higher Ground Productions films Participant (company) films 2022 independent films Netflix original documentary films Sundance Film Festival award–winning films Documentary films about African Americans Documentary films about slavery in the United States English-language documentary films English-language independent films