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‘Kindred’ Is a Time-Traveling Slavery Series That Fails to Do Octavia Butler Justice

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

In the new FX drama Kindred, a young Black woman named Dana finds herself time-traveling back and forth between Los Angeles in 2016 to a slave plantation in early 19th century Maryland. On some of these trips, Dana (Mallori Johnson) takes along Kevin (Micah Stock), a white man she has only just started dating, out of an understandable fear of being in that time and place on her own. For the most part, both are horrified to be there. But there is a peaceful moment during one of their longer visits when they are surprised to recognize that the plantation has begun to feel more real than their lives 200 years in the future.

Viewers watching the series, which playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has adapted from Octavia Butler’s acclaimed 1979 novel, may find themselves having the opposite reaction. Though the show spends the bulk of its time on the plantation, it feels far more vivid, complex, and interesting during our periodic glimpses of the modern world.

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“There’s gotta be rules to this thing,” Kevin insists at one point, and the season gradually explains them. The most important is that Dana is somehow linked to Rufus (David Alexander Kaplan), the son of abusive plantation owner Thomas (Ryan Kwanten from True Blood ) and the emotionally fragile Margaret (Gayle Rankin from GLOW ). Dana’s mission, it seems, is to protect Rufus, and perhaps one or more of the enslaved Black people under Tom’s control. She gets some help from Kevin, and from a savvy free woman named Olivia (Sheria Irving), but the burden falls mostly on herself.

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There is obvious tension and suspense in exactly how Dana and Kevin will talk themselves out of various problems, and Mallori Johnson (a TV novice seen earlier this year in a supporting role in Apple’s WeCrashed ) is more than up to the burden of how much she is required to say without words, and how much the show needs her as its charismatic center. And despite its high-concept, Kindred does not flinch in the slightest from the physical and psychological terror of an enslaved life.

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Dana and Kevin desperately want to escape the plantation forever, so it is perhaps not surprising that Kindred may have unconsciously given its audience the same desire. But it makes for a viewing experience that’s much less engaging than you would expect, given the enduring legacy of its source material.

The entire first season of Kindred begins streaming December 13 on Hulu. I’ve seen all eight episodes.

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Janelle Monae Time Travels Into a Slavery Nightmare in ‘Antebellum’ Trailer

By Dave McNary

Dave McNary

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Janelle Monae is dealing with a time-traveling nightmare of slavery in Lionsgate ‘s latest trailer for the horror film “ Antebellum .”

In the footage released Thursday, Monae portrays modern-day author Veronica Henley, shown explaining how women are the future: “We’re expected to be seen, not heard. But we are the future. Our time is now.”

But suddenly, she’s being transported back into the 19th Century as a slave in the Southern United States to come face-to-face with her ancestors. The trailer’s tagline asks: “What if fate chose you to save us from our past?”

“Antebellum” comes from the producers of “Get Out” and “Us” and is directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, also known as the team of Bush+Renz. Monae’s co-stars include Marque Richardson II, Eric Lang, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, Tongayi Chirisa, Gabourey Sidibe, Rob Aramayo, Lily Cowles and Jena Malone.

Bush+Renz also produced the film with Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, Zev Foreman and Lezlie Wills. McKittrick’s credits include “Get Out,” “Us” and “BlacKkKlansman.”

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“Antebellum” hits theaters on April 24 — five and a half months after Focus Features released the Harriet Tubman biopic “Harriet,” for which Cynthia Erivo received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal as the abolitionist. “Harriet” was a solid performer at the box office with $43 million in North America on a $17 million budget.

Watch the trailer above.

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Janelle Monáe time-travels through horrific history in gripping Antebellum trailer

Janelle Monáe is traveling to the darkest corners of American history in the mysterious trailer for her upcoming thriller Antebellum .

The new horror film — from a group of producers that previously worked on Jordan Peele' s Get Out and Us — was surprise-announced in November 2019 , after a mysterious teaser surfaced online featuring Monáe being abducted and seemingly transported to an alternate reality as an enslaved woman. Since then, details regarding the film's plot have been kept under wraps, outside of a simple logline that indicated the singer-songwriter starred as a successful writer, Veronica Henley, who finds herself trapped in a nightmarish retread of the country's original sin.

Antebellum 's new trailer (above) further teases the character's journey, as Henley is apparently whisked away into a slavery-era cotton field by a mysterious force that targets her during a night out with friends (including Precious star Gabourey Sidibe ), and she's tasked with fighting for to free herself from the hellscape.

"I know that it’s about to open up another dimension in my life as an artist and as an actor, and this is definitely one of my most layered and toughest roles to date," Monáe recently told HuffPost of the role, which she hopes will leave audiences “understanding why 'black women' and 'superhero' should be one word."

“If people can walk away with a deeper appreciation for black women, with a deeper respect for black women, with a deeper admiration for black women, then my job is done," the 34-year-old continued of the film, which also stars Eric Lange, Jena Malone , Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons , and Tongayi Chirisa. "I think that this film will help you see the human experience in a totally different way, no matter what you look like, where you come from."

Antebellum — written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz — hits theaters April. Watch the new trailer above.

New 'Antebellum' Trailer Has Janelle Monae Kidnapped and Enslaved Through Time Travel

The sharp-looking sci-fi thriller arrives in August.

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for the thriller Antebellum . While the teaser trailer kept the plot vague, this new brief trailer (without spoiling too much), provides the basic premise of the plot. Janelle Monae plays a woman in the present day who has a good and happy life, but then she's kidnapped and forced back into slavery through time travel. From there, she has to fight back to escape not only slavery, but to return to her own time.

This is a pretty brilliant conceit since it acknowledges the truth that time travel is really a white man's game. If you're white, you can pretty much go back to any period in time, and you'll probably be okay by virtue of being a white guy. That's not really the case for black people (or really any people of color), and so time travel, rather than a fun adventure, can be used as a cruel device for enslavement. I'm very curious to see how Antebellum will handle its conceit, and while I don't think theaters should reopen in August, I'm still incredibly excited to see this movie.

Check out the Antebellum trailer below. Antebellum is currently slated to open on August 21st and also stars Kiersey Clemons , Gabourey Sidibe , Jena Malone , Jack Huston , Eric Lange , Tongayi Chirisa , Robert Aramayo , and Marque Richardson . It was written and directed by first-time feature filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz , who previously helmed stylized music videos from artists like Jay-Z and Maxwell .

Do you want to see Antebellum in a theater in August? Do you think it should be delayed again (it was originally slated to open in April) to when it's safe to go back to theaters, or do you think Lionsgate should attempt a VOD release? Sound off in the comments section.

TV & Movies

Why The Reviews Of Antebellum Have Been So Harsh

It has a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In the age of COVID-19, watching a movie has become a wildly different experience. With the majority of theaters around the nation still closed, some new releases are switching to a premium-priced VOD format in an attempt to recoup their production costs in the absence of a theatrical release. The latest to do so is the slavery horror film Antebellum , which will be available to rent on Sept. 18 for the price of $19.99. Here's everything you need to know about Antebellum , from the plot to the reviews .

What's It About?

Antebellum is a psychological horror film about Veronica Henley, a modern-day Black woman who is seemingly transported back in time to the 19th century, where she is forced to live as a slave in the Antebellum South. It's Henley's mission to free herself and others and take them back to the modern time period before it is too late.

Who's In It?

The film stars Janelle Monáe as the lead protagonist, seen both in the present-day as Veronica and as the enslaved Eden. Joining her in the cast are Gabourey Sidibe as Veronica's best friend, Marque Richardson as her husband, and London Boyce as her daughter. The main villains are Jack Huston as Eden's plantation owner, Eric Lange as a confederate senator who torments her, and Jena Malone as the mistress of the plantation. The film was written and directed by first-time filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz.

How Scary Is It?

Antebellum is not a horror movie in the sense of, say, The Exorcist . What's scary about the movie are its depictions of racism and the upsetting violence that it displays. There are rape, torture, and murder scenes throughout the movie, and it's Black people who are most often at the receiving end of this violence. The film has an R-rating partly for " disturbing violent content, " so many viewers may find the film difficult to watch for its violence, but don't expect a traditional horror movie experience.

How Sad Is It?

This is a movie that depicts the enslavement of Black people in America, as well as the systemic racism that continues today. There are many scenes of Black people suffering in the film, and some meet a tragic end. The current social climate that was awakened by the killing of George Floyd makes the movie hit even harder.

What Are The Critics Saying?

Antebellum has been savaged by critics . The film currently has a rating of just 35% on Rotten Tomatoes , with the site's consensus reading, " Antebellum fails to connect its images with any meaning, making for a largely unpleasant experience lacking any substantial scares." In a review for Vulture, Angelica Jade Bastién wrote, " Antebellum ends up being a noxious tour of historic violence against Black folks in service of a story that has nothing novel to say about the obliterating function of whiteness and anti-Black racism." It's a critique that many other reviews have shared, underscoring that the film brutalizes Black people just for the sake of brutalizing Black people.

Antebellum is officially available to rent starting on Sept. 18.

In sci-fi series 'Kindred,' a modern-day Black woman is transported to an 1800s plantation

FX’s “Kindred,” which begins streaming Tuesday on Hulu, plunges viewers into a mystery that exists to be experienced, not solved. A young Black woman named Dana, later revealed as an aspiring TV writer in modern-day Los Angeles, lies dazed and apparently injured on the floor of her new house. Barely able to move, she grabs a bag and gathers clothes, a kitchen knife and a bottle of aspirin. She eases into a tub of water, which turns red from her wounds. Then the police start banging on her door, demanding to know whether anything is wrong.

What exactly is happening? There’s no long wait for an answer. Like the 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler that inspired it, the new series quickly reveals that Dana somehow is time-traveling back to an early-1800s Maryland plantation, the place where her ancestors lived with the horrific reality of slavery. While the eight episodes (which arrive all at once) make some changes to the book’s narrative, the show’s creator, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, says his dream scenario would be for people to watch them in tandem with reading Butler’s print version.

“The book will always be the book, and Octavia, thank God, her work will always be there. I just wanted to celebrate her,” says the noted playwright and Obie award winner, who previously worked on HBO’s “Watchmen.”

“That’s what got me through the hardest days, thinking Octavia, Octavia, Octavia.”

“Kindred” is the latest FX show to screen exclusively on Hulu, a partnership that has resulted in the acclaimed “Reservation Dogs,” a comedy-drama about young Native Americans, and “The Bear,” which made the phrase “Yes, chef!” go viral with its intense, quirky portrayal of the staff of a Chicago Italian sandwich spot.

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Like those critical hits, Jacobs-Jenkins’ adaptation has the potential for big pop-culture impact, particularly since Butler’s writings have become a hot source for film and TV projects. “Kindred” is the first to be completed of several screen projects drawn from the author's works. They include a post-apocalyptic saga based on “Dawn” from Ava DuVernay’s production company, a romance involving immortals spun from “Wild Seed” from Viola Davis’ Juvee Productions and a vampire tale from “Fledging” that’s being executive-produced by Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams.

An icon in the science fiction genre, Butler is now considered one of the most notable writers of the 20 th century. She spent years in obscurity, writing in the small hours of the morning and supporting herself with routine jobs during the day. “Kindred” was considered her breakthrough novel. In addition to winning several major sci-fi awards, Butler received a MacArthur “genius” fellowship in 1995. She was the first sci-fi author so honored.

Since Butler’s death in 2006 at age 58, interest in her short stories and novels has continued to grow as readers keep discovering the relevance of the themes that she addressed: climate change, racial injustice, economic and social inequality among them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her 1993 novel “The Parable of the Sower” reached the New York Times best-seller list, offering what Slate called in 2020 “a blueprint for adjusting to uncertainty.”

“I think if there is a resurgence of interest for her today, it’s because what really defines her is her prescience. She was a visionary, the way that she understands the issues to come. ... When you think of the ‘Parable of the Sower,’ her book on climate change, the story takes place in 2024, so we’re almost there. It’s where everything collapses,” says Benedicte Boisseron, a professor of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan who participated in a panel discussion on Butler’s enduring influence in March 2022 during an Octavia Butler Week at the Ann Arbor campus.

Jacobs-Jenkins, who discovered Butler’s books as a young teen, says “Kindred” always has stayed with him. When he returned to the book in 2010 as an adult, “I finished reading it and thought this is a television show.” The project was sold to FX in 2016 and stayed in development for about five years. The pilot finally was shot in fall 2021, and filming for the entire series took place for about six months in 2022, with rural Georgia subbing for Maryland.

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Despite the time-travel element of “Kindred,” it recounts what daily life was like for enslaved men and women in the antebellum South with the painful accuracy of a real memoir. Butler did extensive research for the novel, traveling by bus from California to Maryland and visiting historical sites like Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, which in the 1970s barely addressed the existence of slavery

“There wasn’t the internet, there wasn’t Google, there wasn’t really even, like, library shelves full of scholarship. She was really kind of trying to save something from oblivion, maybe,” Jacobs-Jenkins says. “For me, it’s a great irony of the book that it remains feeling so present tense because I think it just indicates how resistant the culture is to really processing the meaningfulness of this history.”

Jacobs-Jenkins read Butler’s papers and reflected on the differences between 1979 and today before choosing the departures that the series makes from the book. For instance, Dana’s time travel is changed to a generational phenomenon that was shared by certain relatives, a twist that he says was inspired by Butler's early drafts.

Also, the character of Kevin (Dana’s white husband in the book) becomes a new love interest here who finds himself being taken along on this impossible, potentially lethal journey with a woman he barely knows. ”I just wanted to see if there was a way to build that relationship convincingly in real time," says Jacobs-Jenkins.

There also is a nod to the contemporary "Karen" meme of white privilege with the addition of a neighbor who's nosy to an intrusive level about what’s occurring at Dana’s house.

“For me, the best adaptations aren’t necessarily about translating something beat by beat, word for word, but trying to re-create in some ways what the original artist was attempting to create in their own context,” says Jacobs-Jenkins.

An Obie award winner who, like Butler, was himself a MacArthur “genius” fellow, Jacobs-Jenkins also took on the task of being the showrunner for “Kindred.” It was his first brush with being the person essentially in charge of guiding an entire series.

“The experience of going from a writer to a showrunner is like going from a beggar to a CEO overnight,” he says with a laugh. “I spent six years trying to prove to people the idea had something in it and suddenly you’re handed the keys to a thousand Mercedes.”

Despite challenges like having to shoot under COVID-19 safety precautions, Jacobs-Jenkins says he enjoyed the process, especially working with the actors. ”There were definitely a ton of difficulties, but I just felt that every day was a blessing.”

For the role of Dana, who is on-screen for most of the scenes in the series, the production found a future star in newcomer Mallori Johnson, who was in her fourth year of studying acting at Juilliard when she auditioned for the part. Micah Stock, her co-star as Kevin, describes her as an “astonishingly skilled actor” for someone just out of college. “There were times on set where those of us who were a little bit older would look at her and say, 'I can’t do that.'”

Stock, one of several cast members from the New York theater scene, says he already was a friend and longtime fan of Jacobs-Jenkins when he got the "Kindred" script from his representatives. “I think at some point in the process I wrote Branden and said, ‘I just want you to know I really want to do this,’” he says.

Although “Kindred” is more than 40 years old, it's reaching small screens at a time when a debate is raging about how U.S. history and topics related to race are being taught in public schools. Stock thinks the series, like the book, will encourage dialogue.

"The show will spark these conversations, I’m sure, and there’ll be lots of discourse around these things. And ultimately, that’s the win, right? It's the conversation.”

For a nation to have any true sense of reconciliation, facing the past as honestly as “Kindred” does is a necessary step. “It’s very important that people understand (that) to reckon with your history, you have to reckon with … the past of slavery,” says U-M's Boisseron.

She's glad that the book studied at universities has become a potential binge watch. “It opens Octavia Butler to a whole new audience,” she says.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].

All eight episodes arrive Tuesday on Hulu

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Janelle Monae Time Travels Into a Slavery Nightmare in ‘Antebellum’ Trailer

Click here to read the full article.

Janelle Monae is dealing with a time-traveling nightmare of slavery in Lionsgate ’s latest trailer for the horror film “ Antebellum .”

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“See You Yesterday” and the Perils—and Promise—of Time-Travelling While Black

By Maya Phillips

Loopholes, resurrected characters, plot resets, ever-branching arcs: time travel is an infinitely flexible conceit, limited only to its own pseudoscientific rules of causality. The new Netflix movie “See You Yesterday” makes an unusual contribution to the time-travel canon while highlighting one of its most prominent flaws: the racial privilege baked into these stories, or the dangers of time-travelling while black.

From Marty McFly to James Cole and even Wolverine, time travellers are almost always white and frequently male. It’s a practical choice on the part of writers. Post-Reconstruction? Not a problem. Colonial times? Let’s make it a three-day weekend. Time-travel shows and movies tend to fall into one of two categories: quaint personal journeys and heroic quests. In stories like “Back to the Future,” “ The Time Traveler’s Wife ,” and “The Butterfly Effect,” the scale is that of a personal narrative, with a white protagonist comfortably insulated from a larger racial history. On the other hand, in stories like “12 Monkeys,” “The Terminator,” and “Timecop,” the central conflict is so large—apocalypse, dystopias, national or global disasters—that the narrative can easily sweep past issues of race. (As for forward time-travelling, the future tends to be surprisingly post-racial, as evinced in “ Star Trek ” and “ Doctor Who .”)

“See You Yesterday,” which was produced by Spike Lee, takes a different approach. Its protagonists, C.J. and Sebastian, are black teen-age geniuses who figure out the secret to time travel for a science expo at school. When C.J.’s older brother is shot dead by police, she decides to go back in time to prevent his murder. Though the movie encounters some of the usual pitfalls of time-travel plots (predictability, muddled rules) and sports some hokey, eighties-style special effects, what it offers in terms of diversity and messaging is a treasure. As C.J. and Sebastian work out the fantastical science of time travel in a garage, it feels practical, grounded in the reality of black American life. The two don’t set out to change the world or alter their own lives, nor do they jump far into the past or future for an excellent Bill and Ted–style adventure. They’re not thrilled to have one-upped Einstein; they just want to get scholarships to college so they can leave their neighborhood. And C.J. just wants her brother back. Their actions and motivations are contained to this one very real instance of police brutality, so the plot never loses its footing in the real world.

Other shows have tried to address time-travelling while black, to different degrees of success. In the painfully juvenile, short-lived Fox comedy “Making History,” a black character who travels to 1775 is mistaken for a slave, but it’s played like a one-off joke. In the NBC series “Timeless,” which ended last year, a black programmer, a white historian, and a white soldier form a team of time-hoppers pursuing a “time terrorist” who’s out to hijack history. In the first episode, the programmer, Rufus, protests, “I am black. There’s literally no place in American history that will be awesome for me.” His discomfort is always apparent. At one point, he delivers a triumphant speech about future black American leaders, including Barack Obama, to a racist cop—but all it does is incite the cop to pounce on him, creating a distraction so that his white colleagues can break out of prison. In “Timeless,” the woe of time-travelling while black is a detail, a hiccup, sometimes a plot exigency, but never a big theme unto itself, and so Rufus always exists in a secondary position to the show’s two white protagonists.

The British sci-fi show “Doctor Who” has also recently made strides in addressing race in its narrative. For decades, one white man after another starred as the titular alien who travels in time and space. Of the Doctor’s travel companions, too, there have only been a couple of people of color, and the show has handled the issue awkwardly. In Season 3 of the rebooted series, Martha Jones, the Doctor’s black companion, asks him how her race will be addressed in seventeenth-century England; he brushes her concerns off easily, saying that she should do as he does and walk around like she owns the place. Race, he suggests, is an inconsequential construct, except when it isn’t—when they meet Shakespeare, the bard fetishizes her blackness by way of hitting on her.

It was an episode of the most recent season of the series, starring the actress Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor, that signalled a more fearless approach to race. In the episode “Rosa,” the Doctor and her three companions, Graham, a white man, Yasmin, a Pakistani woman, and Ryan, a black man, have to insure that Rosa Parks incites the civil-rights movement as planned. The episode poignantly addresses each character’s specific experience during this moment in history: Yasmin and Ryan encounter people who are either confounded by or openly hostile toward them, and they trade stories about how they still face racism in the present day. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Graham are forced to act complicit in the practice of segregation. The episode’s climactic scene, right before Parks refuses to give up her seat, is so affecting because Graham must confront the racial privilege he was born with and a history of injustice that precedes him.

When “See You Yesterday” opens, in C.J. and Sebastian’s classroom, their teacher—played by Marty McFly himself, Michael J. Fox—is reading Octavia E. Butler’s novel “ Kindred ” at his desk. In Butler’s book, a black woman living in Los Angeles in 1976 is repeatedly transported back to pre–Civil War Maryland, to a plantation where her ancestors lived. She tries to protect her lineage while also trying to stay alive, in a time when she’s deemed a slave. She’s literally beaten down by the past—whipped and nearly raped—and, after she time-travels for the last time, one of her arms is left behind, in the past. History has taken a part of her, and she will never be whole in the present. In “Kindred,” as in “See You Yesterday,” history is never just relegated to the past for black people. It’s living.

“See You Yesterday” ends uncertainly, on a long shot of C.J. Her determined expression, as she runs toward the past again, could promise hope or folly. But in every version of the story, there’s injustice and a black person inevitably hurt or dead. This cyclical sorrow, the movie seems to say, is the state and cost of institutional racism in America. Though time-travel narratives so often allow white protagonists to freely jump the time line, there’s an open field of possibilities for the genre to look at history through the eyes of the oppressed, forgotten, and marginalized. What “See You Yesterday” asserts is that, for a people hindered by prejudice and police brutality, the future is a privilege. “See you yesterday,” C.J.’s brother tells her solemnly, near the end of the film. For these black travellers, there are only yesterdays to contend with; tomorrow is just out of reach.

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The Narrative Experiment That Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Justin Chang

20 Best Slave Movies of All Time

Slavery is perhaps the biggest taint on mankind’s existence. The macabre evil evokes the most loathsome responses from people, even when it is mentioned in hindsight. Due to the relentless efforts and endeavors of the great Abraham Lincoln, the world moved in a direction that relinquished the ironic comforts of slavery. Hollywood has been vociferous and unforgiving in its stance against the same. Numerous powerful social campaigns and awareness programs have been initiated to completely eradicate slavery.

Over the years, film-makers have relayed their indignation and frustration on the subject, and America’s pioneering role in the founding of the concept, through soul-moving slavery movies. The emotive pieces of cinema prompt evocative emotions, which we all at some point in time deal with. So, here is the list of top slavery movies ever that might break your heart. If you are lucky, you might be able to find several of these good slavery movies on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.

20. Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

A biblical drama focused on forced slavery of Hebrews at the hands of the elite and Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The film is told from the perspective of two main biblical characters, Moses and his adoptive brother Ramesses. When Ramesses, the legitimate son of Pharaoh Seti, is threatened by a prophecy and Moses’ sudden revelation of him being a Hebrew, he exiles his brother. What follows is Moses’ fight against the Egyptian kingdom to relieve the slaves from servitude and the Bible’s manifestations of God that may bring wrath upon the condemned human race.

The film is worth a watch for its performances by Joel Edgerton, Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley. Moreover, the production design and the visual effects add up to the aesthetics of the film. However, the long-running time and the flawed screenwriting make the film boring and unconvinceable at some points. This may be the reason for the box-office failure of the film, where it made only $260 million over a 200 million dollar budget; despite having a great cast and director Ridley Scott at the helm.

19. In Dubious Battle (2016)

Slavery comes in many forms, be it racial or based on status and authority. ‘In Dubious Battle’ is the story of various laborers working during the era of Great Depression, who were forced to work on lower wages, threatening their and their families’ survival. While the authoritarians and the badge-wearing people thrust their power onto the weak and poor, the workers slave into the powerful clenches and chains of the upper-class management, leading to their misery. The film tells the story of two workers who protest against this cruelty by organizing the first major workers’ strike, which eventually led to the establishment of labor laws and labor unions in the country, thus accepting workers’ rights and freedom for fair pay.

Directed by James Franco, the film stars an ensemble including Natt Wolff, Selena Gomez, Josh Hutcherson, Zach Braff, Ashley Greene, and Franco himself; joined by the veterans Vincent D’Onofrio, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston, Sam Shephard, and Robert Duvall. Despite negative reception, Franco’s subtle and captivating direction, as well as the collective of the excellent performances by the cast members, makes ‘In Dubious Battle’ watchable.

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18. Amazing Grace (2006)

Abe Lincoln is the man whose name has shone throughout history as the person who eradicated slavery in the United States. However, there is little is known about the struggle and political fight of William Wilberforce, the man who brought a similar change in the more sophisticated, traditional, and harsher culture of Britain when he had a legislative bill pass in the British parliament. ‘Amazing Grace’ is the story of the same man and his 20-year long battle against Britain’s House of Commons to have slavery and slave trade abolished in the English land and colonies.

The film stars Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four) as Wilberforce with an ensemble cast in support featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, and Toby Jones. ‘Amazing Grace’ was a box-office failure and was moderately appreciated by critics, given to the non-innovative screenwriting and un-astonishing performances. This has, since then led the film to be forgotten in the past years. However, it won’t be wrong to say that the story and the overall presentation and acting performances do make an exceptional contribution to the genre, thus making it worth a watch.

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17. Unbroken (2014)

At the core of WWII, the tension between Japan and the United States grew strong after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour. The States’ entry into war saw many young lads enlisting into the forces so they could serve the greater cause. ‘Unbroken’ follows the true story of a similar lad named Louie Zamperini, an Olympic distance runner turned US Air Force bombardier. Zamperini was one of the hundreds of American soldiers kept in captivity by the Japanese Imperial Army as Prisoners of War, whereby they were subjected to evil abominations, including forced slavery.

It is arguable that ‘Unbroken’ is a PoW film, rather than falling into the genre of “slavery-films”; however, the film’s depiction of the related horrific events of PoW camps in Japan qualify it for the list. The film primarily focuses on the camp, where Zamperini was held by a Japanese officer, Mutsushiro Watanabe, a listed war criminal in the US WWII records. The film is a jaw-dropping and harrowing showcase of forceful slavery, which has been brilliantly and flawlessly put on-screen by Angelina Jolie in her directorial debut. The film was widely applauded for its historical accuracy and Jack O’Connell’s portrayal of Zamperini. Nominated for three Academy Awards, ‘Unbroken’ also includes Joel and Etan Coen in the crew as screenplay writers, which gives us another reason not to miss this film.

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16. Free State of Jones (2016)

Starring Matthew McConaughey, ‘Free State of Jones’ is a story about Newton Knight, a deserter from the Confederate Army fighting Lincoln’s US government in the American Civil War. While the States were submerged in the war between freedom and slavery, Newton Knight united the free men and the slaves at a single place, long before the nation and the constitution of the US reached a consensus on the subject. The film depicts Newton’s life during the war when he captured and established ‘Free State of Jones’ in SE-Mississippi, a place with equal rights for both Black and White folks, as well as his continued war against racial inequality in post-war and post-Lincoln America.

‘Free State of Jones’ had brought the world audience a chapter of American history, which had been hidden and forgotten, and even unbeknownst to many people in the modern generation. However, the film failed to match up to other spectacular movies that Hollywood has produced on the subject of slavery and racial inequality. The film scored moderately on the critics’ chart and failed to earn significant profits. It’s McConaughey’s acting that drives you through the film, as his character solely shapes the heart and soul of the film.

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15. Belle (2013)

‘Belle’ is a true story about a legitimate African-British, Dido Elizabeth Belle, who is denied her free status in British society, despite being brought up in an aristocratic household. ‘Belle,’ as said by film theorists, is the film about the flaws of the British culture, which was then defined by race, color, and slavery. The accounts of the film take us to the times when the slave trade was at its peak in Britain. ‘Belle’ is not centered around the violence associated with slavery but focuses on the issue of racial prejudice and discrimination, which, in turn, was embedded into the English mindset by the acts of slavery and slave trade commissioned by the Empire against Spanish and African citizens.

‘Belle,’ though reminds the viewers of the Song Massacre, whereby more than a hundred slaves were murdered by the crew of slave ships that served the Empire’s interests. This particular event in the film reflects the truth behind the British high-class societies, which kept quiet while innocent men suffered due to their racial indifference. The film is widely acclaimed, especially among the critics of the African-American Film Critics Association. Though criticized for certain historical inaccuracies, it remains one of the most excellent movies made regarding the subject of slavery.

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14. The Birth of A Nation (2016)

Carlyle once said: “History is but, a biography of great men.” While he gave that definition, he didn’t define great men. In my personal views, Nat Turner was one. The brainchild behind the slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in the year 1831, started the revolution that eventually led to the emancipation proclamation. The film chronicles his tumultuous days and his constant striving to free himself and million others in bondage. It opened at the Sundance film festival, where it bagged the Grand Jury award and came in for special praise for its direction, acting, writing, and cinematography. Its Oscar chances were maimed due to the alleged inclusion of the director of the film, Parker, in sexual assault against a woman. Pity, how it couldn’t even make it to the nominations.

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13. Ben-Hur (1959)

The epic classic, ‘Ben-Hur’ is one of the most successful films of all time and is most likely featured in every other list lest this one. The film primarily chronicles the story of Jewish-born merchant Judah Ben-Hur and his relationship with his family and his troubles with his adoptive brother, Messala. When Ben-Hur is wrongfully exiled by his own brother, who is a Roman commander, he is forced to live a life condemned to the galley slaves. While the film primarily explores Ben-Hur’s efforts to restore his innocence and his destroyed life and family, a delicate portion of the film has depicted the lives of Jewish slaves subjected to the galleys by the Roman tribunes and soldiers. Ben-Hur gained a fair amount of critical acclaim for its depiction of the Roman use of galley slaves, which was a big deal in the 1950s due to the lack of available history concerning the galley slaves back then. The last recorded account of galley slaves, at the time of the release, was all in centuries-old manuscripts translated (maybe manipulated) over the course of time.

However, ‘Ben-Hur’ perfectly captured that part of the history, which became an important portion of the entire film, which gave lead actor Charlton Heston enough screen-time to leave his mark. These specific scenes became part of all the attributes of ‘Ben -Hur,’ which led the film to win 11 Academy Awards, a record it still holds and shares with ‘Titanic’ (1997) and ‘LOTR: The Return of the King’ (2003).

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12. The Pianist (2002)

When the Nazis took Poland in 1939, a famous pianist named Władysław Szpilman and a six-year-old boy, Roman Polanski, were among the few survivors out of the millions of Jews killed in the horrors of the Holocaust. Years later, the boy brought the story of the pianist in front of the modern world through a cinematic masterpiece, ‘The Pianist.’

‘The Pianist’ is the story of Władysław Szpilman, a Polish Jew who was forced into slave labor after he was saved from imminent death by an officer before his family was sentenced to the gas chambers right in front of him. Szpilman never saved his family but struggled in a series of slave labor camps while trying to fight for his life until the end of the war.

The film was a passion project for director Roman Polanski, who himself had lost his mother in the concentration camps during WWII. ‘The Pianist’ is just dazzling, and at the same time, frightening for every viewer, as it offers a brilliantly acted, exquisitely directed, and perfectly constructed and foretold story to the viewers; however, it also forces them to watch the condemnable abominations the innocent Jewish race faced through the story of a brave, disillusioned, and afraid man among them. A detailed and accurate insight into the events of the Holocaust and Nazi slave trade, ‘The Pianist’ is a critically acclaimed masterpiece, which would leave you awe-struck by its ambiguity and aesthetics.

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11. Sankofa (1993)

Not many production houses have dealt with the concept of slavery as honestly and brutally as ‘Sankofa.’ The word is derived from the Ghanian Akan language, which means “go back, look for, and gain wisdom, power and hope.” The film is a symbolic effort to nudge the people of African descent back to their original roots and the African culture. It is reflected in the film’s premise, which employs the concept of time travel, and uses a well-to-do model to go back in time, where she is readily enslaved. The beautifully made film’s engaging concept is depicted by a bird and the chants and drumming of a Divine Drummer.

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10. I Am Slave (2010)

While researching for this article, I came across this film, which has been largely neglected by the audience and critics alike, with no significant reviews or media attention given to it. However, its story and the real-life inspiration behind it prove how crucial it is to watch and admire this film and the central character’s story.

Malia comes from a powerful Sudanese tribe, her father being the leader of the community, thus making her a fearless and formidable woman. However, all is in vain when a group of mujaheddin kidnaps and sells her in British slave trade, subjecting her to years of servitude, discrimination, bigotry, violence, and pay-less work in the families that “purchased” her.

The film follows her subsequent struggles to regain her freedom from the unwanted and illegal slavery she has been forced to bear. An essential aspect of the film is that it is set in modern times, and the true story behind the film is not older than the 90s. Therefore, Malia (real name Mende Nazer) suffered through all this in time, when slavery was abolished and condemned by societies all over the world, reflecting the roots of slavery that are still clenching the world and the people living in it.

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9. Roots (1977)

The only thing is, this one’s not a film. It is a miniseries. But it is good. Nominated for a record 37 Emmy awards, the production went on to win nine awards. Its finale registered unprecedented Nelsen ratings and still holds the number three position in the history of television. It starred LeVar Burton in the role of Kunta Kine, a young man who is enslaved but harbors big dreams, one of which is to be liberated. It is a true account of Alex Haley’s egregious times in bondage. The mini-series is one of the best there is, willfully deciding to make the action in the script volatile in nature to accurately depict the mood in the times. One of the best black slavery movies.

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8. 13th (2016)

Many films have been produced across the world cinematic industries based on this subject, but if you are in for a real insight into the history of slavery and its continued use in the modern world in different forms, ’13th’ is the film for you. ’13th’, titled after the famous “Thirteenth Amendment” of the American constitution that legally abolished slavery, is a documentary feature that depicts the birth of slavery and its modifications into various virtual and modern forms over the years, which has ultimately led to racial discrimination, prejudice, crimes based on religious and caste differences, and societal divisions.

The film chronicles the presence of slavery and its reciprocation in American society from the viewpoints and experts of multiple academicians and historians. Rated one of the most excellent and detailed documentaries in the past years, the film holds a 96% aggregate on Rotten Tomatoes and is the recipient of multiple awards. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

7. Tamango (1958)

Now this one is a bit twisted and different in its discourse to depict slavery. It starred Dorothy Dandridge, the first actress of color to be nominated for an Academy Award. The film is a story set aboard a ship, helmed by Captain Reiker and his bonded men. It also included in its passengers, Aiche, a slave mistress of the captain. Tamango, one of the slaves, plans a rebellion and holds Aiche hostage for the same. When Reiker threatens to shoot them all with a cannon, Tamango pleads with Aiche to go away. She doesn’t, and true to his word, Reiker ends the group, silencing their liberation songs. The love scenes between Reiker and Aiche were unnecessary, but the film’s unwavering belief in its root concept makes it worth watching.

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6. Amistad (1997)

Whenever Steven Spielberg takes to the camera, you expect a warm feeling inside. His humane way of story-telling and its elan simplicity is what makes him the master raconteur. ‘Amistad’ is a historical drama, based on the true story of the events in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad. The traveling enslaved men of the Mende tribe managed to gain control of the ship and abduct their original captors to set their course towards freedom. Their ambitions were cut short and soon subjugated by the US army. The case was decided in the Supreme Court. The movie is an enthralling experience, one which you aren’t going to forget too soon.

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5. Gone With the Wind (1939)

The film isn’t explicitly about slavery but is an essential and symbolic part of it. Probably one of the most iconic movies of all time, ‘Gone With the Wind’ is the apotheosis of a historical-romance movie. Despite being criticized for historical revisionism glorifying slavery, but, it has been credited for triggering changes to the way African-Americans are depicted cinematically. The film follows two dangerous individuals, a manipulative woman and a rogue-outcast man, and their blissful journey of unison. Set amidst the backdrop of the American Civil War and the turbulent period in the South, the movie dissects the varying emotions that persisted within the environs of the besotted state at the time with effortless ease. Love triumphs all, as they say.

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4. Glory (1989)

This is not the first film in the list centered around the American Civil War. But in a totally different context. ‘Glory’ tracks one of the very first military units of the Union army, consisting solely of African-Americans, except for the officers, who are white. It is told from the perspective of Colonel Shaw, the white commander of the battalion, and his unwavering relationship with his brave soldiers. The covey is fondly remembered for their acts of valor at Fort Wagner. The movie was nominated for five Academy awards, winning three, including one for the charismatic Denzel Washington. It was highly praised by critics and audiences alike.

3. Django Unchained (2012)

Oh, now. This one is not your quintessential drama where Black people suffer in silence and wait out the struggle. No, sir. This is the one where they blow the brains out of their apparent masters with a .22 magnum shotgun. Quentin Tarantino’s action-filled drama is a gory-fest of the human body reduced to stinking and disgusting pieces of meat. The story follows Django, who is unchained and set free by a humble-liberal German dentist, Dr. Schultz. On the latter’s offer to join him in his crusade to kill bad white men, Django’s life gets a new direction and purpose: to reunite with Broomhilda. When they find her, they’ve to deal with a paranoid plantation owner who takes a liking to Django. Without over-dramatizing and weaving the fabrics of style with the story through utmost dexterity, Tarantino once again mesmerizes.

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2. Lincoln (2012)

Mmm. This one. I literally short fall of words whenever I mention ‘Lincoln’ in my breath. Apart from Abraham Lincoln being my idol, Daniel Day-Lewis is my favorite actor. Spielberg’s brilliant film about the divided Congress on the President’s historic emancipation proclamation is more than what meets the eyes. Centering on Lincoln and his disturbing visions of the drifting war, the film traces the whole political digression that emerged out of the amendment. ‘Lincoln’ is a different breed of a film, with its rich writing and perfect direction being complimented by a soulful background score. One of the very best!

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1. 12 Years A Slave (2013)

The indubitable number one on the list is Steve McQueen’s historical-drama movie, ’12 Years A Slave’, which was also the worthy winner of the Best Picture awards at the Academy Awards. Drawing the premise of its story from the slave-memoirs of Solomon Northup, the film follows his eviscerating journey into the jaws of the morbid disease, in spite of being a free man. The talented musician is allured into a lustful snare by two men posing as hires of a circus. Solomon travels from pone plantation field to other, facing the harsh whims and fancies of their berserk owners. The beautiful story about the struggle for freedom and the eventual emancipation is one of triumph and unbound inspiration. A wonderful watch for y’all (see what I did there?).

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The 20 Best Movies About Slaves and the Slave Trade, Ranked

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As a society, it's important that we don't hide our history in the shade due to shame, guilt, or ignorance—which is why it's so important that there are movies about slavery being made.

Cinema provides an avenue to bring attention to buried stories and give voices to the voiceless. In doing this, the hope is that we—as a society—confront reality and prevent history from repeating itself.

We like to think that our modern world is free of slavery, that all those chains were cast aside when the slave trade was abolished in the 1800s. Sadly, that's far from the case.

Here are some of the greatest movies about slavery that serve as reminders of how evil humanity is capable of being and what we must work towards ending once and for all.

20. The Birth of a Nation (2016)

Directed by Nate Parker

Starring Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller

Biography, Drama, History (2h)

6.5 on IMDb — 73% on RT

No, we aren't talking about D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation from 1915, which was praised as a technical feat but ultimately disappointing because it was pro-KKK.

We're talking about Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation from 2016—his directorial debut—that harks back to the former racist landmark with a story about a slave rebellion in Virginia, 1813.

The poignant voice of Nina Simone singing "Strange Fruit" (first performed by Billie Holiday and met with retaliation because of its lynching metaphor) rings across the cotton fields as the men prepare for an uprising led by Nat Turner (Nate Parker).

19. Harriet (2019)

Directed by Kasi Lemmons

Starring Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr.

Action, Biography, Drama (2h 5m)

6.7 on IMDb — 74% on RT

"Be free or die" was Harriet Tubman's great motto, and the fact that she's reduced to such an extreme quote is heartbreaking in itself. But prepare for even more sorrow in Harriet !

Cynthia Erivo stars in Kasi Lemmons' biopic of Harriet Tubman, the ex-slave who rescued approximately 70 people using the Underground Railroad network of abolitionists.

The narrative of Harriet might be somewhat formulaic, but Erivo shines with her powerhouse performance that infuses this film with soul.

18. Emancipation (2022)

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Starring Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa

Action, Thriller (2h 12m)

6.1 on IMDb — 45% on RT

Abraham Lincoln may have issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963, but that didn't mean all slaves were freed overnight.

In Emancipation , Peter (Will Smith) is based on a real black slave known as Whipped Peter (who may have actually been two men). Whipped Peter is most famous for the iconic photograph of his scarred back—an image that makes us wince just to look at.

The only color that pops out of Emancipation 's grayscale palette is red, reminiscent of the tragic red coat in Schindler's List.

17. The Butler (2013)

Directed by Lee Daniels

Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack

Biography, Drama (2h 12m)

7.2 on IMDb — 71% on RT

The Butler isn't just about slavery—it's about the greater history of racism in America, told from the viewpoint of one man who lived through all of those major changes.

Loosely based on White House head butler Eugene Allen, Cecil (Forest Whitaker) recalls his life climbing from the depths of slavery in Georgia and through racial integration, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, the Vietnam War, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

The Butler manages to be both super sad and uplifting, at least more uplifting than most of our other picks. Either way, it's one of the best historical movies about slavery.

16. I Am Slave (2010)

Directed by Gabriel Range

Starring Wunmi Mosaku, Isaach De Bankolé, Lubna Azabal

Biography, Drama, Thriller (1h 22m)

6.7 on IMDb — N/A on RT

Gabriel Range's I Am Slave is a true story that exposes the modern slave trade that we all tend to forget continues to rage on.

Now a Sudanese author and activist, the real person of Mende Nazer spent eight years as a slave—first in Sudan, where she was kidnapped during a village raid, and then in London.

Wunmi Mosaku stars as Malia (based on Nazer), who was just a child when she was abducted and made a slave.

This Channel 4 drama is a gripping tale that probably flew under your radar, so we're here to bring it back to light.

15. The Woman King (2022)

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

Starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch

Action, Drama, History (2h 15m)

6.8 on IMDb — 94% on RT

Sweat, fire, adrenaline, plus Viola Davis showing everyone who's boss as a cross between goddess and superhero. That's The Woman King in a nutshell. What's not to love?

General Nanisca—or the "Woman King"—frees slaves and trains them to fight against their owners in 1823. And yes, the Agojie were a real, all-female army in West Africa!

The Woman King is a sensationalized action flick, scored to Beyoncé and with an air of Marvel about it. However, it's also feisty, empowering, and infused with enough heart to overcome its generic script.

14. Beloved (1998)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Yada Beener

Drama, History, Horror (2h 52m)

6.0 on IMDb — 72% on RT

The title Beloved is a reference to the real-life Margaret Garner, an African-American slave who inspired various paintings, poems, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that this movie was based on.

But don't Google her name just yet! Because you'll spoil yourself.

Instead, go into Beloved without knowing much about it—other than the fact Oprah gives a knockout performance in this supernatural horror drama set against the backdrop of the American Civil War.

Don't let the box office figures fool you, either! Beloved may not have pulled in lots of money, but it was nominated for an Oscar.

13. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927)

Directed by Harry A. Pollard

Starring Margarita Fischer, James B. Lowe, Arthur Edmund Carewe

Drama, History (2h 24m)

6.8 on IMDb — N/A on RT

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a complicated film. It was made in 1927, long before Hollywood even thought about depicting a racist America (like in 1956's Giant and 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird ).

Harry A. Pollard's silent film, based on the 1852 novel that helped shape the abolitionist movement in the United States, shows the "moral and political evil" of slavery.

Even so, Uncle Tom's Cabin is still a whitewashed paternalistic movie that employs heavy use of blackface. As in, every cast member is Caucasian except Uncle Tom...

12. Sankofa (1993)

Directed by Haile Gerima

Starring Kofi Ghanaba, Oyafunmike Ogunlano, Alexandra Duah

Drama (2h 5m)

7.0 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Writer/director Haile Gerima utilizes a super interesting concept in Sankofa to explore African culture and its historical entanglement with the slave trade.

Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano) is an African-American fashion model who doesn't know her roots. When she travels to Ghana for a photoshoot, she ends up transported back in time to experience slavery.

Sankofa is a sacred kind of movie that's in touch with the divine, set to a soundtrack that will send shivers down your spine. It's one of the most unique movies about slavery you'll ever see.

11. Belle (2013)

Directed by Amma Asante

Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson

Biography, Drama, Romance (1h 40m)

7.3 on IMDb — 85% on RT

Belle is a different kind of period drama than what you'd normally see in, say, a Jane Austen adaptation. Instead of political courtships and power-feuding royalty, Belle is inspired by the painting of a real black gentlewoman in 1779.

Dido Belle is the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy officer, deemed too "exotic" for the dining table yet too high-ranking to sit with the staff. Where does that place her?

Amma Asante directs Gugu Mbatha-Raw in this fictionalized tale of the elusive historical figure, where shame follows Dido like a shadow.

10. Glory (1989)

Directed by Edward Zwick

Starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes

Biography, Drama, History (2h 2m)

7.8 on IMDb — 95% on RT

One of the Union Army's first African-American corps in the American Civil War was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, led by Colonel Shaw (Matthew Broderick).

Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman star as members of that division, fighting off Confederates looking to enslave any black man in a uniform—especially in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner.

If you're interested in war history, Edward Zwick's Oscar-winning drama Glory is for you! It's one of the most engrossing movies about slavery in America.

9. The Help (2011)

Directed by Tate Taylor

Starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer

Drama (2h 26m)

8.1 on IMDb — 76% on RT

The Help is a different kind of slave movie—one that depicts a transition that many black women faced in the 20th century: from plantation slave to domestic maid, which was still a kind of slavery, just without all the whipping and field work.

Reductively known as "the help," these women were there to raise the children of white socialites who were too busy gossiping in salons and attending parties to raise their children themselves.

While not slaves in the traditional sense, they certainly weren't free, being trapped in the systemic racism of the 1960s. It's just too ironic that the only way their voices can be heard is through a white woman: a journalist, played by Emma Stone.

8. Amistad (1997)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Starring Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins

Biography, Drama, History (2h 35m)

7.3 on IMDb — 78% on RT

The notion of people being "property" is ludicrous—a point emphasized in Steven Spielberg's not-so-family-fun film Amistad .

La Amistad was a Spanish slave ship that staged an unexpected kind of mutiny in 1839: the captives took control of the deck.

Sadly, they still ended up in US waters, where a legal battle ensued.

One of the few slave movies that's blended with courtroom drama, Amistad stars Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins, and Morgan Freeman (though some historians deemed it too "soft" a depiction of the real events).

7. The Northman (2022)

Directed by Robert Eggers

Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang

Action, Adventure, Drama (2h 17m)

7.0 on IMDb — 90% on RT

The Northman is a very different kind of slave movie—not about the black slavery of American history, but a kind of slavery that happened in Scandinavia.

In The Northman , an 8th century Viking prince named Amleth heads down a path of vengeance when his father is slain by his uncle.

The Northman is an epic-scale medieval action movie that's heavily inspired by Norse mythology and stars co-producer Alexander Skarsgård, who poses as a slave on a ship to Iceland.

The dark, culty, and hallucinogenic themes of The Northman all point toward its auteur director Robert Eggers, who directs an all-star cast in what ended up being one of the best films of 2022.

6. Gladiator (2000)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen

Action, Adventure, Drama (2h 35m)

8.5 on IMDb — 80% on RT

Gladiator is one of the most famous slavery movies, though you may or may not classify it that way. It started the 21st century off with a bang and shot up to become one of the most popular films ever made.

A revival of the historical epics loved by Classical Hollywood, Gladiator stars Russell Crowe as "the general who became a slave... the slave who became a gladiator." That line alone sends chills up our spines.

Set in a dusty, violent, and corrupt 180 AD, Gladiator centers on Maximus (Russell Crowe), who must avenge his family in the gladiatorial arena as Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) watches him with evil eyes and an eviler heart.

5. Lincoln (2012)

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn

Biography, Drama, History (2h 30m)

7.3 on IMDb — 89% on RT

Who better to play the earnest, patient, and forgiving old man of Honest Abe than Daniel Day-Lewis?

Despite being British, the esteemed actor perfectly embodies the US President in Lincoln , who issued the Emancipation Proclamation—the beginning of the demise of slavery in America.

Coupled with a world-class director like Steven Spielberg, Lincoln was almost guaranteed critical acclaim—and it certainly got it.

The biographical film covers the end of the American Civil War, which coincided with the end of Lincoln's life in 1865. To this day, it's one of the best movies about the American slave trade.

4. Ben-Hur (1959)

Directed by William Wyler

Starring Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd

Adventure, Drama (3h 32m)

8.1 on IMDb — 85% on RT

With Ben-Hur , we get a slave movie that also happens to be a classic historial epic from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

We're talking about the 1959 remake by William Wyler, not the 1925 silent film original and certainly not the unnecessary 2016 remake.

The story follows a similar arc to Gladiator : a nobleman-turned-slave (played by Charlton Heston) is out for revenge. But it's so much more than that. It's smart and emotional and epic in scale, with action scenes that still put modern blockbusters to shame.

As an adaptation of the 1880 novel titled Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ , expect this film to be tinged with the usual religious hues found in studio movies of the time.

Ben-Hur is one of three movies to win the record for most Oscar wins (that's 11, as of this writing), making it one of the best historical movies about slavery worth watching. Just mind the runtime.

3. Django Unchained (2012)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio

Drama, Western (2h 45m)

8.4 on IMDb — 87% on RT

Quentin Tarantino has built up a bit of a reputation for using racist language in his films, but he caught more flak than usual for his writing and direction in Django Unchained .

But you might argue it's all justified, especially in this one. After all, Jamie Foxx—the very star of this Revisionist Western film—said that Django Unchained is "supposed to make you angry [about racism]."

And it certainly succeeds at that!

Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed from slavery in exchange for helping a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) track down some plantation owners. The result is a stylish—and bloody—drama that's very much a slave film, but perhaps not the sort you're used to.

2. Spartacus (1960)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Mann

Starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov

Adventure, Biography, Drama (3h 17m)

7.9 on IMDb — 94% on RT

Spartacus is one of the greatest epic historical dramas in Hollywood history, the kind that could only be made by a true visionary with ambition. Of course, we're talking about Stanley Kubrick.

Kirk Douglas headlines as the "I am Spartacus!" leader of the slave revolt against the Roman Empire. And the best part? He's based on a real Thracian gladiator!

Spartacus met a bit of trouble at release because its screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and the original author Howard Fast were both blacklisted for their support of Communism.

Luckily for Universal Studios, Spartacus still broke records at the box office and won four Academy Awards!

1. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Directed by Steve McQueen

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael K. Williams, Michael Fassbender

Biography, Drama, History (2h 14m)

8.1 on IMDb — 95% on RT

Director Steve McQueen isn't afraid of holding a long take—especially when it's to make us uncomfortable, as he does in 12 Years a Slave .

Adapted from the memoirs of Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave is a heart-wrenching biopic that'll have you fidgeting in your seat, itching to look away but knowing you shouldn't.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the born-free violinist who was captured and enslaved in 1841. The film also stars Michael Fassbender, Michael K. Williams, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Lupita Nyong'o, Brad Pitt, and Sarah Paulson, but you might not like all of them by the end...

12 Years a Slave is the quintessential slave film. It's the one to watch if you want an unapologetically brutal but deeply rewarding look at American slavery and the depths of racism therein.

‘Antebellum’ is mostly set on a plantation. But the directors reject the label ‘slavery horror’

"Antebellum" filmmakers Gerard Bush, foreground, and Christopher Renz are photographed at home in Beverly Hills on Aug. 25

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For first-time feature filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, the process of bringing Lionsgate’s “Antebellum” to life was quite literally the stuff of nightmares.

The psychological thriller, which was written and directed by the longtime directing partners, stars Janelle Monáe as Veronica Henley, a successful author in contemporary times, and also as Eden, a long-suffering slave in the antebellum South. The women live seemingly opposing existences, but a surprise twist reveals itself in the film’s third act.

The story, which came to Bush in a dream following the sudden and unexpected losses of his father and best friend, felt “seeded by the ancestors,” he said by phone before the film’s Friday PVOD release.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a New Age person,” he said. “But this felt really up close and intimate, it felt ancestral. I’m categorizing it as a nightmare because I was asleep and I was in a dream state, but it felt like I was receiving.

“The star of the dream was this woman, Eden. And she was so desperate to reach help and to escape her tormentor that it felt like she was screaming across dimensions. That’s the only way I can describe it.

“The nightmare was essentially ‘Antebellum,’” he added. “Most of the details that you see in the movie are from the nightmare. [That night I woke up] and took notes in the notepad on my phone. And the next day, Christopher and I put pen to paper and wrote a short story.”

“Antebellum” marks the duo’s feature film debut after spending the last decade directing luxury advertising campaigns and short films centered around social justice issues. Despite the film’s arrival on the heels of racial unrest and a historic pandemic (and its last-minute pivot to a digital release after a planned theatrical run was postponed twice), the directors believe that the timing couldn’t be better.

“We did create the movie to be experienced in a theater, as a communal experience,” said Renz. “And we did push the date a couple times to try to keep the movie in theaters. But it got to a point where we either would release the movie now in this time or wait until sometime later in 2021.

“We felt that this movie has something to add to the conversation that America is having right now and PVOD was the best option for that. But if one person got sick or worse just because they wanted to see our movie, that’s not something that we could live with. So we felt that this was the best way for it to be released.”

For Bush, the film feels “fated.” “It feels like the story has its own life,” he said. “One perfect example is, when the movie was re-dated by the studio for Sept. 18, unbeknownst to us at the time, that day falls on the anniversary of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. And so that gave us even more comfort in knowing that perhaps the film has a journey of its own and we’re just supposed to be responsible stewards in protecting it and letting it get out to the world.

“It’s funny, I used to think that the racial reckoning was just adding insult to injury with the global pandemic. But what I’ve since realized is that it made the ground that much more fertile for this awakening that we experienced this summer.”

Though more than 50% of the film takes place on a plantation, the filmmakers and its star bristle against categorizing it as a slavery movie.

“I just think that it’s reductive for us to say, ‘Well, it’s slavery horror,’” said Bush. “It’s not that. What we’re talking about here is a new genre-bending of historical horror. Yes, there’s the slavery portion of it. But I think what one should really be looking at is, we’re experiencing this from the perspective of this Black woman and what this world looked like and the casual cruelty that was enabled by this collective agreement.”

“I think this film does a remarkable job of connecting the dots from past to present and what the future could look like,” said Monáe. “We’re in the middle of a revolution right now and I’m just grateful to have a film that will keep the conversation going and reminding folks that when we’re talking about racist policies, a lot of these policies started during that era when our ancestors were stolen. I’m just thankful that Chris and Gerard put together a film that allowed us to humanize the Black woman and show on a global level what it’s like for Black women to dismantle white supremacy and carry that burden on our backs every day.”

“If you would have told me three or four years ago that I would be telling a story about slavery, I would have told you that you were smoking a new kind of rock,” said Bush. “That’s just not something I would ever have imagined because those weren’t stories that I was comfortable with seeing. Seeing people that look like me, that quite frankly were me, in chains and bondage was not something that was very easy for me to sit through.

“I think that when the nightmare was seeded to me and we wrote the short story and then the script, it gave us a way in that felt appropriate for us. By recontextualizing the country’s original sin, it shifted the perspective for us to strike an empathetic chord.”

“We understand the fatigue that is felt around films with slavery narratives,” said Renz. “At the same time, we understand that no one would ever plan to have a wedding at Auschwitz. Yet for some reason in America people feel that there’s no issue with planning a huge celebration on a plantation. And so obviously we feel there has not been enough education. Certain people do not understand and they have not gotten it yet.”

In bringing his nightmare to the screen, Bush hopes to “push people into conversation and from conversation into action.”

“We have to be really vigilant in making sure we don’t participate in the erasure of our own history,” he said. “Because what happens is, before you know it, slavery never happened. And that might seem far-fetched, but with the current environment of misinformation and the erasure we’re already seeing in history books, it’s really important that we correct the record.”

“‘Gone With the Wind,’ for instance — I find that movie to be a horror film and really insulting to Black people,” he added. “I saw a young Black woman in an interview a year or two ago and she was talking about how she always pictured herself as Scarlett and she said it without even a hint of irony. That’s what a job it has done on all of us. And so it was really important to us to say, ‘Well, let’s show slavery through the prism of horror and let’s have stunning, breathtaking beauty live in the same space, which makes the horror all the more horrific.’”

Bush was so incensed by the 1939 film that he hunted down the lenses used to shoot it “and rebuilt our cameras to shoot ‘Antebellum’ with the same lenses that were used to shoot ‘Gone With the Wind.’” “We were determined to correct the record with the same weaponry that they used to misinform with really effective, beautiful propaganda,” he said.

“Our intention for the film is to serve as a prescription, a medicine, a catharsis. It’s really important that we get to a place in this country where we have the courage and the determination to confront our past, specifically this country’s original sin, if we have any hope of living in the present without being haunted by the past. And very possibly seeing our shared future robbed of all of us. I think our hope is that it activates people into action.”

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Hollywood, CA - March 10: Cord Jefferson back stage during the the 96th Annual Academy Awards in Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Sonaiya Kelley is an entertainment reporter at the Los Angeles Times. The Bronx, N.Y., native has previously contributed to Essence, Allure and Keyframe Magazine. An alumna of Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism and the Bronx High School of Science, you can find her on Twitter @sonaiyak and on Instagram @sonaiya_k.

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This 14-room brick house in Winnetka, Ill., seen Friday, May 6, 2011, and featured in the 1990 movie "Home Alone" has been put up for sale for $2.4 million. The family comedy featured a young Macaulay Culkin defending the house from intruders. The 4,250-square foot house sits on a half-acre lot about 20 miles north of Chicago. There are four bedrooms and it features the staircase that Culkin sledded down in the movie. (AP Photo/ Nam Y. Huh)

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What is kindred all you need to know about fx's time-traveling show.

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I'm Concerned About This Apple TV+ Show's Future After Watching Amazon's Best Sci-Fi

One part of bridgerton season 3 hits very differently after queen charlotte, 17-year-old doctor who episode explains why ruby couldn't enter the tardis in "73 yards".

The first trailer for FX's upcoming sci-fi thriller series Kindred is out now, and it has left a lot of questions unanswered. Based on Octavia E. Butler's critically acclaimed 1979 novel of the same name, Kindred is a time-traveling literary epic that explores themes of race, slavery, and American history, with the violent and dark story taking place over decades. Its first trailer doesn't give away much, with just hints about its time-traveling rules and complex story, leaving many viewers scratching their heads.

FX's Kindred will be an eight-episode series that adapts Butler's classic novel and is the first-ever on-screen adaptation of the story. The book is Butler's best-selling work and has an incredibly dedicated fanbase. Because of this, the trailer for FX's Kindred adaptation has garnered a lot of hype, and FX has some high expectations to meet. There's a lot of ground to cover, including what Kindred is about, how faithful it will be to the book, and when it will come out.

Related: What Went Wrong With Westworld: Why Season 5 Isn't Happening

What Is Kindred About?

Kindred tells the story of Dana Franklin, a 26-year-old black woman from the modern day (1976 in the novel) who is suddenly and inexplicably transported back in time. Dana finds herself at a pre-Civil War plantation in Maryland in the Antebellum south, surrounded by all the slavery, sexism, and violence that would be expected of the time period. After passing out, Dana is transported back to her 1976 home without a clue of what had happened.

Over the course of the novel, Dana passes out and is transported back to the plantation several times, attempting to figure out what is causing these episodes during each visit. Kindred spans decades, using its sci-fi concept to explore racism , feminism, social constructs, and tons of other important themes. It is a classic example of using complex science-fiction storytelling to address social horrors. Kindred spans decades, weaving together a complex plot with rich themes to create a novel that has been praised and remembered since its release in 1979.

How Does Kindred's Time Traveling Work?

Unlike other sci-fi movies and TV shows, Kindred 's time-traveling doesn't come via a machine or a magical object. In fact, throughout most of the story, Dana doesn't even know what is causing it. The main plot centers around Dana trying to stop her unexplainable jumps to the past, and while fully explaining it would spoil the show, there are some rules that are introduced early on in the novel to explain Kindred 's system of time travel.

Kindred 's time travel has one core rule : although time progresses as normal when Dana is in the past, only a few minutes have passed when she wakes up in the present. For example, Dana's second trip back in time sees her stay there for several hours, unable to leave. However, when she returns home, her husband assures her that it has only been a brief absence. At one point, Dana discovers that five years have passed in the Antebellum south, while she had only been in 1976 for eight days.

Related: Best Sci-Fi Movies Of 2022

There are some other rules revealed about Kindred 's time travel early on. Dana discovers that her time-traveling is somehow related to Rufus Weylin, the son of a slave owner that Dana rescues from death in her first trip to the past. Rufus can be seen in the trailer, being the young boy that Dana carries out of the burning building. Each time she travels to the past, Dana appears near the Weylins, making her think that Rufus is key to why it keeps happening. Dana also learns that others can time travel with her as long as they are making contact with her when she passes out. This leads to some major problems later in the novel.

What Is FX's Kindred Changing From The Book?

The extent that Kindred deviates from the book is unknown for now, with FX keeping much of the story under wraps, but it seems to be fairly faithful to the book story-wise, with several shots from the trailer being ripped straight from the novel. However, FX's Kindred seems to change one key thing from the novel: its tone. The trailer for Kindred gives off more of a psychological thriller vibe, almost sci-fi horror flavor instead of the mystery drama style that the novel sticks close to. While the book does have some horrific moments of violence, Kindred isn't really a scary story. Considering it's just a trailer, though, it could be misrepresenting the tone of the final show.

Will Kindred Season 1 Tell The Whole Story?

FX's Kindred is currently only eight episodes, which may not be enough to tell the whole story. Kindred is a fairly complex novel, with its story taking place over years and even decades. Each time Dana goes to the past, the plantation's characters have gotten older, meaning that the show would need different actors to play the same character as they age. It isn't yet confirmed if the eight episodes are just Kindred season 1, with a further season to be commissioned if it proves popular, or if the upcoming 2022 show is a limited sci-fi series .

Kindred could easily fill up several seasons of television on its own. FX can even continue the Kindred series past the book, telling original stories in the same universe — something that has a lot of potential. While the question of how much of the novel is being adapted is still open, Kindred 's strange release pattern may hint at an answer.

Related: How Back To The Future Would Change If Jennifer Went To 1955 With Marty

When Does FX's Kindred Come Out?

Although Kindred 's first trailer was released just recently, the show is dropping sooner than such traditionally early marketing might suggest. Like many of FX's other shows, Kindred will be released on Hulu, with the series premiering on December 13. The first episode won't be the only thing coming out that day, though. In a surprise twist, all eight episodes of FX's Kindred will be released on Hulu on December 13, allowing the exciting story to be binged by viewers. The 2022 TV calendar has already been packed with fantastic content, and eight episodes of FX's Kindred landing at once will be the perfect way to close out the year.

Next: Most Anticipated 2022 Sci-Fi Movies (Still To Come)

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Kindred Review: Hulu Historical Drama Doesn't Live Up to Its Fantastic Time Travel Premise

The series commits to Octavia Butler's themes but can't find momentum

Mallori Johnson, Kindred

Adapting Octavia Butler's classic 1979 novel Kindred is a daunting task, made all the more daunting by being the first to bring Butler's work to the screen, big or small. Butler was a groundbreaking science fiction writer whose work explores themes of Black identity, history, and power relationships. Her readership has expanded and her reputation has only grown since her death in 2006 at the age of 58. But while a handful of Butler books are in various stages of development, including Wild Seed and Parable of the Sower , FX's Kindred is the first to make it to the finish line.

The series, premiering Dec. 13 on Hulu, both expands the world of the novel and stays true to its central concerns, specifically the way American history has papered over the reality of slavery while romanticizing the pre-Civil War South and the ways in which slavery's legacy remains never far from the surface of the present. Acclaimed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins serves as showrunner, and his Kindred remains admirably true to the spirit of Butler's work. But, based on this eight-episode first season, the series struggles to translate that respectful approach into a consistently compelling ongoing series. After a promising start, Kindred never establishes any sense of momentum or urgency, in spite of a vivid, ugly depiction of plantation life and the best efforts of a strong cast.

But the start is promising. After an ominous bit of scene setting, the pilot (directed by Janicza Bravo ) begins in 2016, following Dana ( Mallori Johnson ), an aspiring TV writer newly arrived in Los Angeles who spends her evenings outlining old episodes of Dynasty to learn the craft. But Dana's arrival comes as a surprise to her aunt Denise ( Eisa Davis ) — her only surviving relative — and Denise's husband, Alan ( Charles Parnell ), who are surprised, and less than thrilled, that she's moved there with the money from selling her grandmother's New York home. The only upside to the awkward dinner in which she tells them of the move: Dana meets Kevin ( Micah Stock ), an awkward but endearing musician/waiter whom she begins dating (after at first keeping him at arm's length).

The commitment to Octavia Butler's themes
Strong performances from a pair of relative newcomers in the leads
After a promising start the series starts to drag

It's a relationship that will face some challenges from the start, both unsurprising and otherwise. On the unsurprising front: some nosy neighbors who, though they won't say it (or maybe even admit it to themselves), aren't sure about having a Black neighbor, maybe especially one with a white boyfriend. Less expected: Dana begins blacking out, disappearing, and traveling through time, returning again and again to a plantation in 1815 Maryland, seemingly drawn there whenever Rufus ( David Alexander Kaplan ), the son of plantation owner Thomas Weylin ( Ryan Kwanten ) and his wife Margaret ( Gayle Rankin ), is in a state of danger and distress. Further complicating matters is another unexpected discovery: Olivia ( Sheria Irving ), the mother Dana previously believed died in a car accident when Dana was 2, is there as well.

Dana, later joined by Kevin, continues to jump back and forth in time, but the series mostly settles into its plantation setting, where the couple struggles to come up with a cover story for their identities (and their odd manner of clothing) and with how best to proceed. Deducing that Rufus is part of her family tree, Dana feels she has to keep him alive but struggles with what to do beyond this. He seems destined to inherit his father's monstrous racism, but perhaps, she reckons, her influence can temper that.

Meanwhile, Kevin both fears for his life and discovers his white privilege extends to the past, despite posing as a penniless traveling musician. Some of the series' best moments come when Kevin finds himself face-to-face with the dehumanizing abuses of slavery, which shock him even more than they do Dana. "You're not seeing what I see everyday," she tells her boyfriend. "I know that," he replies, only to receive a fully warranted "Do you?" in return. Any echoes of the contrast between the day-to-day 21st century realities experienced by white people and those experienced by everyone else are surely not coincidental.

Micah Stock and Mallori Johnson, Kindred

Stout and Johnson develop playful chemistry as their relationship becomes a kind of refuge from the horrors of slavery, but Kindred often gets bogged down in a narrative that only inches forward in each episode. It also never quite cracks the catch-22 that comes with depicting slave owners. Humanizing Thomas and Margaret too much risks inviting sympathy for the devil. Depicting them as irredeemably awful risks making them stock villains. Kindred mostly chooses the second route, especially with Thomas, which makes the character seem appropriately threatening but also a bit flat and familiar.

Kindred 's first season is thematically rich but narratively sluggish. Yet, like the soap operas Dana adores, it ends on a cliffhanger that makes it hard not to wonder what happens next, and there's enough promise in these episodes to hope the story doesn't end here.

Premieres: All episodes premiere Tuesday, Dec. 13 on Hulu Who's in it: Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten Who's behind it: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins serves as showrunner, working form the novel by Octavia Butler For fans of: Butler, stories of time travel, science fiction with social themes How many episodes we watched: Eight of eight