This shouldn't be much of a surprise, as we already mentioned in past posts that Toronto International Film Festival director Cameron Bailey revealed in an interview that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith will be attending this year's festival, specifically to present Shola Lynch's Angela Davis documentary, Free Angela & All Political Prisoners.

Will & Jada are/have been supporters of the documentary, and it's certainly a good thing for the film's awareness and overall profile.

This evening brings news that Will & Jada Pinkett Smith's Overbrook Entertainment, as well as Jay-Z's Roc Nation have come on-board as executive producers of the Realside Productions/De Films Aiguille-produced documentary.

You will recall that the trio did the same thing for the Fela! Broadway run in 2010. 

“We at Overbrook Entertainment are very proud to support this intriguing documentary about the life of Angela Davis. Filmmaker, Shola Lynch has done an incredible job in revealing a piece of American history we thought we all knew,” said Jada Pinkett Smith.

Meanwhile, Jay Z, added: “Shola Lynch has crafted an intricate and compelling film about Angela Davis. Roc Nation is honored to be a part of a creative collective that can present such a riveting story.”

In a similar tag-team, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry partnered up to help push Lee Daniels' Precious, after its Sundance Film Festival debut in 2009.

Free Angela & All Political Prisoners is described as:

… a feature-length documentary about Angela Davis and the high stakes crime, political movement, and trial that catapults the 26 year-old newly appointed philosophy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles into a seventies revolutionary political icon. Nearly forty years later, and for the first time, Angela Davis speaks frankly about the actions that branded her as a terrorist and simultaneously spurred a worldwide political movement for her freedom.

Most recently, that specific trial was covered briefly in last year's acclaimed doc The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975; although it was only a portion of that film's focus. I certainly expect Lynch's project, given that Angela Davis will be its primary concentration, will be far more extensive in scope.

We should have a review of the film as well as an interview with Shola Lynch at TIFF, so look out for both.

The film's trailer is embedded below: