We’ve featured Roy T. Anderson’s work on this blog on the past – notably his self-financed feature film debut “Akwantu: the Journey,” on the history of the Jamaican Maroons. He continues along that path in his new film, “Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess,” telling the story of the legendary “Nanny of the Maroons,” Jamaica’s only female National Hero who was confirmed by Jacqueline DjeDje, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, as “the first black female freedom fighter in the Americas – coming before Harriet Tubman, and even Sojourner Truth.”
After some film festival play throughout 2016, the film is now available to watch via digital rental on Vimeo on Demand (see below).
This eighteenth-century warrior queen led a band of former enslaved Africans in the mountains of Jamaica to a decisive victory over the mighty British army. Despite all the acclaim, Queen Nanny remains a mystery. Conceived by Anderson and History Professor Harcourt T. Fuller, this landmark one-hour documentary unearths and examines this mysterious figure that is Queen of the Maroons.
“Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess” was filmed in Jamaica, Ghana, Canada, and the United States over the course of two years, and includes interviews with Maroons and scholars who are experts in Caribbean history and the study of slavery. Following on the heels of “Akwantu: the Journey” (2012), Anderson’s award-winning film on the history of the Jamaican Maroons, Queen Nanny expands on the story of the New World’s first successful freedom-fighters by shedding light on to one of the leading figures in that struggle. This film features appearances by the “Queen of Reggae” Rita Marley, the widow of Bob Marley; Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, The Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller; double Olympic and World Champion sprinter Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce; U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke; historians Verene Shepherd, Linda Heywood, Afua Cooper and others.
You can rent the film right now via Vimeo On Demand to stream. Watch the trailer below, and click here to head over to Vimeo for the rest:
