It’s finally here! As we get set to celebrate June as Caribbean American Heritage Month here in the United States we are pleased to inform you that our award-winning documentary film Akwantu: the Journey will be available online for digital download at www.vimeo.com starting May 31, 2013. In addition, viewers can visit the film’s website www.akwantuthemovie.com to download the Akwantu: the Journey Discussion Guide, designed to promote dialogue and debate around the film. The home use DVD will be released on Amazon, summer 2013.
News you can use about the film, from the filmmakers.
Recapping… A film we’ve been following the progress of for over a year now, since our initial September 2011 post, titled Akwantu: the Journey, the feature doc is directed by Roy T. Anderson, award-winning Hollywood stuntman to the stars (like Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx).
Full description of the film, which centers on the history of the Maroons f Jamaica, follows:
They were considered the “Spartacus” of their time; except these enslaved Africans were victorious in their fight for freedom. This fact is not lost on Jamaican-born New Jersey-based filmmaker and stuntman Roy T. Anderson. After years of research and dozens of interviews that took him from remote regions of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains to the coastal environs of Ghana and its interior, then finally to the mysterious and isolated community of Accompong, St. Elizabeth, he has conceived Akwantu: the Journey, which documents the struggles for freedom of the Jamaican Maroons, rebel slaves of West African origin who defeated the mighty British army and formed independent communities in the rugged and remote regions of Jamaica in the early-mid 18th century. The descendants of these communities still maintain their proud heritage today. Yet so little is known about the Maroons whose very rich culture and heritage is threatened to now become a thing of the past.
The film is said to have been shot over 3 years, in Jamaica, Ghana, Canada and the USA, featuring interviews with world renowned scholars, African nationals, Maroon officials and present-day Jamaican citizens (both Maroon and non-Maroon), while simultaneously capturing Roy’s personal journey of self-discovery from Maroon society to North America.
Ahead of the film’s VOD and DVD releases, a new release trailer for it has been provided and is embedded below:
