Descendant

Dir. Margaret Brown. 2022, 109 mins. DCP. Brown’s moving documentary about this country’s legacy of slavery and its lingering traumas excavates a violent past that for a community in Mobile, Alabama, remains a painful reality. In an incident that occurred in 1860, before the passing of the 13th Amendment but after the U.S. had banned the kidnapping and importing of people to the U.S., a slave ship carrying more than one hundred Africans docked. Though the ship was ordered sunk to destroy evidence of its illegal passage, its survivors established a separate community called Africatown, which today contains a vibrant community but is beleaguered by governmental neglect and inequity. Looking at both the dramatic re-emergence of the long-buried ship and the daily lives of the town’s inhabitants, Brown’s documentary is a loving rendering of a place that refuses to let its complicated past stay buried. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.