In the year 1808, the federal law was signed in the United States that prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa after years and years, doing it regularly to have labor or exploitable people without spending too much. That did not stop years later, in 1860, two men with good fortune decided that they could evade the law without being caught.
That year they sailed to Africa, captured several people and tried to turn them into slaves. Immediately afterwards they made the journey back home clandestinely so as not to be caught red-handed. 100 people arrested aboard a ship, the Clotilda, which returned months later and was burned and sunk almost immediately to prevent evidence of the crime committed. But not everything stays sunk forever, as it shows us’Decendents‘.
The past always comes up
The documentary that premiered on Netflix last October is the kind of hidden gem that doesn’t have much relevance in its release because, well, it’s a documentary that is not about lurid crimes, it has no gory focus and its big bang is expected in awards season (if it comes). Only a small word of mouth among true stakeholders have tried to give it relevance as one of the best premieres of the platform this year.
Celebrated at this year’s Sundance Festival with a special jury prize, ‘Descendants’ shows us the story that I commented in the introduction about Clotilda and the small town of Africatown that was formed with the enslaved people who were brought in the illegal company. He follows her from the perspective of her descendants, who they try to make that story known after years of being buried to avoid the dishonor of doing it in the first place.
The director Margaret Brown It follows with special care the acts carried out by the community in its search for justice, to connect with its own past and for history to be known, not hidden. A forceful cry, though not shrillin the face of silence due to cruelty, giving purely American nuances to a story of historical memory.
‘Descendants’: the power to tell a story
‘Descendants’ does not stay in the complaint, but approaches its protagonists from empathy. Their testimonies allow us to get closer to the power of connecting with your own past, the repair that comes from knowing where you come from and how healing it is that your story is heard. Brown is aware of the power that what he says has and allows it to develop organically, with a mime that is close to the excellent ‘The silence of others’, a documentary from here that deals with a similar injustice.
The production is sometimes not so distinguishable from other modern documentaries, but it is the small details in the decisions made that end up magnify what we see. the photograph of Zac Manuel Y Justin Zweifach He uses bluish colors and landscapes very intelligently to gradually introduce small distinguishable tones that add to the narrative. The decision to choose who offers testimonies from outside the circle of protagonists and how is another aspect that amplifies what is sought to be told.
The best thing about ‘Descendants’ is that it is not conformist. He knows he has a powerful story, but he’s not content to just plant it before us for a simple reaction that is quickly forgotten. Its visual and sound details accompany the message, they are not there as a formality, and they give Margaret Brown’s work a higher emotional depth, since it enhances the message of the power of telling the story. A piece of film that already deserves to be appreciated and not wait for the documentary categories to decide to celebrate it.