Art In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave

"Slavery existed as an industry for over 230 years. It’s such a colossal stretch of American industrial and social history and yet there are hardly any films that exist either as documents of fictionalised accounts of that time. That, to me, is pretty astonishing. You can claim that it’s a lost piece of history but the reality is that people don’t want to look at that particular period of time. They’re embarrassed and ashamed."

"Racism and slavery go hand in hand. You can’t separate the two. Far from it — the notion that at that time black slaves were not seen as human reinforces that. You can look at it in terms of industry, you can look at it in terms of economy and capitalism but as far as what it is and how it was, it was maintained because people had to somehow justify the fact that people were put into slavery, and they did it through racism."

"Slavery is violence. How could you make a slavery film without violence? It’s impossible. If people don’t like the violence then that’s fine. I’m not trying to please everyone. But you can’t make a film about a people who were incarcerated for hundreds of years and pretend they were handed out lollipops and given a fair deal. Blood was spilt."

"Slavery is a huge subject matter and I hope we get more people coming out willing to explore it. There never seems to be a shortage of people wanting to make Second World War films, why not slavery? The Second World War lasted what, five years? Slavery is a very rich subject matter. There are so many stories to tell. I might possibly tell a few more myself someday. For now, this is a call to action. I’m not talking about racism or slavery specifically, I just hope that after seeing this film people ask themselves what they can do for others. Call a friend who’s having a hard time, help a neighbour, do something for someone. It could go a long way."