Assata Shakur Documentary In The Works With Angela Davis

Following the latest passing of Assata Shakur, filmmakers Giselle and Stephen Bailey have introduced they’re creating a documentary and scripted undertaking on the famend political activist.

The sister-and-brother filmmaking duo behind HBO’s Seen & Heard: The Historical past of Black Tv will produce and co-direct the documentary beneath their banner, Indigo Movies, with authorization from Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, Selection experiences. Civil rights lawyer Lennox Hinds, who represented Shakur, has granted the filmmakers unique entry, with political activist, professor, and creator Angela Davis becoming a member of as government producer.

“Assata’s story is essential to all Individuals because it reveals the powers that divide us and our capability to heal,” Giselle and Stephen Bailey mentioned in an announcement.

The announcement comes after Shakur’s passing on Sept. 25 in Havana, Cuba, the place she had lived in political asylum since escaping jail in 1979. Born Joanne Chesimard and a member of the Black Liberation Military, Shakur was convicted in 1977 for the 1973 dying of Trooper Werner Foerster throughout a New Jersey Turnpike site visitors cease that left two lifeless and Shakur wounded.

Sentenced to life, she escaped jail in 1979 with assist from BLA members and had been a fugitive, later showing on the FBI’s high 10 most-wanted terrorists listing in 2013. Supporters argue her conviction was primarily based on weak proof, noting no gunpowder residue on her fingers, lack of fingerprints on the homicide weapon, and her accidents sustained whereas allegedly surrendering, together with acquittals or dismissals of different prices towards her.

Within the 2014 version of Assata: An Autobiography, Angela Davis wrote a foreword praising Shakur as a “compassionate human being dedicated to justice” and warned that the FBI aimed “to frighten folks concerned in struggles right now.”

The yr prior, Davis referred to as Shakur “harmless” and mentioned her case highlighted the police brutality and racism she and her friends confronted on the time.

“Forty years appears as if it have been a very long time in the past; nonetheless, initially of the twenty first century, we’re nonetheless coping with the exact same points – police violence, healthcare, training, folks in jail, and so forth,” Davis mentioned. “Individuals actually don’t know the main points and usually are not conscious of the extent to which [Shakur] was focused by the FBI and the COINTEL programme.”

Now, with each a documentary and a scripted undertaking in improvement, Assata Shakur’s story and legacy are set to achieve a brand new technology of fact seekers.

RELATED CONTENT: New Jersey’s Misplaced Focus: 77-Yr-Outdated Assata Shakur Tops The State’s Most Wished Checklist