perhaps it’s because that atrocity was so front
We don’t have that kind of imagery, or
and center, and it was also a different time
language, or understanding—and we certainly
period. There were the tools that we use to
aren’t taught it—of slavery. Because it was also
create this art, which weren’t in existence at the
a very systemic, militaristic operation. And even
time of this atrocity, so there was almost no way
this show doesn’t scratch the surface, because
to try to recontextualize what that event was.
for all of our 10 episodes, only one-and-a-half
I was thinking just this morning about this idea
of them take place on the plantation. And
of the efficacy of telling this history—of retelling
then, only half of them take place south of the
it—of the need, or the lack of a need, for more of
Mason-Dixon line. Because of that, we’re not
these images. And I do think it’s about recon-
even addressing, as you said, the industrial scale
textualizing how we view this time in American
of slavery.
history and, for me, recontextualizing how we view my ancestors. A case in point for that is Thanksgiving. If that
I do think these genocides don’t just happen. They are systematically enacted, and they are organized. But I don’t think we, as Americans,
holiday is told from a Native American perspec-
have properly conceptualized this system of the
tive, it’s going to be a very different holiday than
conditions of American slavery through these
the one that I grew up having forced upon me.
same terms and prisms.
That’s a very small example, but I think it is an example that shows the justification or the need
A couple years ago, Spike Lee told me that,
to keep telling stories like this.
when he was at NYU Film School in the early
I hope, by the way, that someday somebody
THERE ARE IMAGES AND A TEXT, AND THEN THERE’S A SUBTEXT, WHAT I LIKED ABOUT HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO TELL THE STORY OVER 10 HOURS WAS THAT YOU COULD EXPLORE METAPHOR AND THEN THE METAPHOR BENEATH THE METAPHOR.” — BARRY J E NKINS
’80s, he was shown The Birth of a Nation
does make a film that’s titled Thanksgiving, and
with no context for the politics of D.W.
that it tells the real truth of the genocide of the
Griffiths’ movie. That blight looms large in
Native Americans. But I’m going off topic…
the history of this medium. So was I. I think the only context we were given
Well, I think what’s interesting, and frankly
for it was that it was outdated and arcane, but
frightening, is to continue to recognize
this is where the medium comes from.
the industrial scale on which people con-
And it’s interesting, because the creation
structed an apparatus for the infliction of
of those images, that’s not happenstance. It’s
abject brutality upon others.
part of an adjudication of responsibility. We talk
When we talk about the grand scale of an atroc-
about the Holocaust as being systemic, I think
ity—a very organized, systemic scale—I think we
because there’s so much evidence of systemic
now have some understanding of the Holocaust
practice, and of course there were reparations.
through that prism. I watched a documentary
Of course there were. And if we can prove that
called Exterminate All the Brutes, and one of the
this government systematically disenfran-
men who escaped one of the camps, he had a
chised Black folks—that it was organized and
very visual mind, and for the trials, he redrew the
endorsed—then you can adjudicate respon-
architectural plans of what all these facilities
sibility to recompense those people or their
were. It was mind-blowing to see the architec-
descendants. I’m not saying I’m creating art
tural detail that went into building vessels of
working toward that effect, but I do think if the
systemic destruction.
art is very truthful in speaking to the condition,
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D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
SOUTHERN SETTING
Above, from left: Barry Jenkins and Thusuo Mbedu on set; Jenkins directs a scene in a cotton field.