Canadian filmmaker Clement Virgo’s highly-anticipated television mini-series adaptation of author Lawrence Hill’s award-winning bestseller, “The Book of Negroes,” is slated to make its North American premiere at the second annual Canadian International Television Festival (CITF) in Toronto on November 18.
In a report by Indiewire, David Heath, board member of the CITF was quoted “We are thrilled to present this advanced look at ‘The Book of Negroes’ at one of the television world’s newest events. Made for two of North America’s most compelling TV networks, Canada’s CBC and Viacom’s BET Networks in the U.S., the series is a sweeping historical drama. It has an international scope and an international cast that features some of the finest Canadian talent in front of and behind the camera.”
Damon D’Oliveira, executive producer of the project, for Conquering Lion Pictures, added: “In addition to bringing this North American premiere to television fans, the CITF will feature an industry-oriented panel discussion about the making of ‘The Book of Negroes.'”
Aunjanue Ellis, Louis Gossett Jr., Cuba Gooding Jr., and Lyriq Bent are all members of the starring cast of the project from Conquering Lion Pictures, Out of Africa Entertainment and Entertainment One (eOne) Television.
The film boast of one of the strongest female characters in recent fiction, the novel’s synopsis reads: “Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle—a string of slaves— Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic “Book of Negroes.” This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata’s eventual return to Sierra Leone—passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America—is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey.”
Here is the trailer
