In 2018, Vice published an article interviewing Antoinette Harrell, a historian and genealogist specializing in peonage, particularly among Black people in the US south. Harrell, through 20-years of research, uncovered many stories of people who were enslaved well into the 1950’s and 60’s, and lived to tell the tale. Harrell’s blog details some of her tangible findings that point to the reality of 20th-century enslavement in the United States — a reality many were not made aware of through their education of slavery. “I recall learning about the prevalence of sharecropping in the South through the New York Time's 1619 Project but I wasn't aware that there were still enslaved people in the 60s and 70s,” says Korie. “I can't even fathom the extent to which that was able to happen and how that still affects racial dynamics in the South today.” The story of Mae and Annie Miller, one that was uncovered by Harrell, served as the inspiration for the film when director Krystin Ver Linden came across the story of these sisters who were enslaved in Mississippi in the 1960s. Though 60 years may seem far away, Annie Miller and her brother Arthur Wall have lived long enough to tell the tale of their experience, even though Mae has not - in fact, the two siblings have been invited to the premiere of the film in Baton Rouge alongside Harrell. Despite the seemingly widespread annoyance with the number of Black trauma productions being pushed out by Hollywood, positive sentiments surround the film on the day of its premiere. “We’re all too familiar with the traumatic slave film but there is a promise of something different in this story,” says Korie.
Source: Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment PAGE 34 • SPRING AT HOWARD
