{"id":105406,"date":"2022-10-23T08:04:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T08:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/descendant-movie-review-movie-summary-2022\/"},"modified":"2022-10-23T08:04:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T08:04:19","slug":"descendant-movie-review-movie-summary-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/descendant-movie-review-movie-summary-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Descendant movie review & movie summary (2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I thought about this while watching director Margaret Brown’s excellent documentary, \u201cDescendant.\u201d My beliefs were supported when I read Brown’s comments about the Clotilda, the slave ship that is her film’s narrative focus. \u201cThe story of The Clotilda was not a ‘myth’ or a ‘legend’ as it was often referred to by white people,\u201d she wrote, \u201cbut an already present history, just one that was not told or accepted as the dominant ‘ American’ narrative.\u201d The ship, built and financed by wealthy Mobile, Alabama resident Timothy Meacher around 1856, was used to bring the last slaves acquired in the international slave trade to America in 1860. Since this type of slave trade had been deemed illegal in America, and was punishable by death, Meacher burned and sank The Clotilda afterwards to cover up his crime.<\/p>\n

The descendants of the 110 victims of Meacher’s treachery settled in Africatown, a section of land now incorporated into Mobile, Alabama. The denizens there, past and present, were privy to the first-person narrative of Cudjoe Lewis, once believed to be the only living survivor of the Clotilda. Lewis told his story not only to his kin, but also to author Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote it down for her 1931 book, Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo<\/em>. We hear Hurston singing some of the songs she learned from her research, and the film acknowledges that she is perhaps the first Black female film director. Written in Lewis’ vernacular, barracoon<\/em> It was rejected by publishers and didn’t see the light of day until 2018. Meanwhile, everyone who lived in Africatown knew their ancestors’ stories, because oral traditions remain unaffected by the approved narratives peddled by the majority. Many Africatown residents held hope that proof of the Clotilda would someday be found.<\/p>\n

\u201cDescendant\u201d begins with comments from a member of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. There’s a possibility that the Clotilda has finally been located. We learn that its use as a slave vessel came from a bet Meacher made with another wealthy White man about whether he could pull off violating the 1807 ban on the international slave trade. The Clotilda’s captain, William Foster, sailed to what was then Dahomey, after Meacher heard that kingdom was selling its enemies into slavery. This puts \u201cDescendant\u201d in an intriguing conversation with the recent Agojie warrior movie, “The Woman King,” which also takes place in Dahomey and mentions, though doesn’t explore fully, this aspect of the kingdom’s existence. (Full disclosure: I thoroughly enjoyed “The Woman King.”)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought about this while watching director Margaret Brown’s excellent documentary, \u201cDescendant.\u201d My beliefs were supported when I read Brown’s comments about the Clotilda, the slave ship that is her film’s narrative focus. \u201cThe story of The Clotilda was not a ‘myth’ or a ‘legend’ as it was often referred to by white people,\u201d she …<\/p>\n

Descendant movie review & movie summary (2022)<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105560,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/saga-of-last-us-slave-ship-finds-life-in-descendant-doc\/","url_meta":{"origin":105406,"position":0},"title":"Saga of last US slave ship finds life in ‘Descendant’ doc","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 In the murky waters of an Alabama river, diver Kamau Sadiki said he had to pause before entering the last known slave ship to the United States, where 110 people were confined in hellish conditions.\u201cYou feel the reverberation, the pain and suffering, and the screams and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37866,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/barack-and-michelle-obama-surprise-marthas-vineyard-african-american-film-festival-to-introduce-higher-grounds-netflix-doc-descendant\/","url_meta":{"origin":105406,"position":1},"title":"Barack And Michelle Obama Surprise Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival To Introduce Higher Ground’s Netflix Doc ‘Descendant’","date":"August 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The 20th annual Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), founded by Stephanie and Floyd Rance, opened Friday evening with a robust crowd at a screening of descent, a searing documentary helmed by filmmaker Margaret Brown. 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