Margaret Brown entranced audiences at the Sundance Film Festival with “Descendant,” her documentary about the historic discovery of a lost slave ship in 2019. The movie made such a splash at Sundance that it won a Special Jury Prize. Now, it gets another screening at the New York Film Festival before it premieres exclusively on Netflix.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis, courtesy of Netflix:
Documentary filmmaker Margaret Brown (“The Order of Myths,” “The Great Invisible“) returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document the search for and historic discovery of The Clotilda, the last known ship to arrive in the United States, illegally carrying enslaved Africans. After a century of secrecy and speculation, the 2019 discovery of the ship turns attention toward the descendant community of Africatown and presents a moving portrait of a community actively grappling with and fighting to preserve their heritage while examining what justice looks like today.
“Descendant” is Brown’s first documentary since 2014’s “The Great Invisible,” about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. “Invisible” won the Grand Jury Prize For Documentary at SXSW that year, and the film later received an Emmy nomination. Brown also directs 2008’s “The Order Of Myths,” about the segregated Mardis Gras celebration in Mobile, Alabama, her hometown.
The Playlist’s review of “Descendant” called it “a stunning work of cultural ethnography,” awarding it an “A” rating. So, this documentary is worth seeking out once it premieres on Netflix on October 21. Watch the trailer for the film below.