2022
PG
1 h 49 m

2022
PG
1 h 49 m

Summary Descendant tells the story of the Clotilda - the last known ship to smuggle stolen Africans to America - the unthinkable cover-up, and the impact of that crime on generations of descendants living in Africatown. Once the past is revealed, can the future be reclaimed?

Directed By: Margaret Brown

Written By: Kern Jackson, Margaret Brown

2022
PG
1 h 49 m

2022
PG
1 h 49 m

Descendant

Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 13 Critic Reviews

User Score Generally Favorable Based on 7 User Ratings

7.3

My Score

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Where to Watch

Directed By: Margaret Brown

Written By: Kern Jackson, Margaret Brown

Where to Watch

Critic Reviews

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Metascore

Universal Acclaim Based on 13 Critic Reviews

100% Positive
13 Reviews

0% Mixed
0 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore

Universal Acclaim Based on 13 Critic Reviews

100% Positive
13 Reviews

0% Mixed
0 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com

Oct 21, 2022

Descendant is worth seeing no matter who you are. For viewers like me, however, it engenders the reality that, no matter how hard anyone tries to whitewash history, our stories will forever continue to be told in full, by us and for us.

By Odie Henderson FULL REVIEW

100

The Associated Press

Oct 20, 2022

There is a searching, ruminative dialogue running throughout the film. Brown and editors Michael Bloch and Geoffrey Richman beautifully weave together disparate voices into a meditative chorus.

By Jake Coyle FULL REVIEW

Vox

Oct 21, 2022

What Descendant demonstrates is how ignoring the real story — the ship sunk to the bottom of the river by people who find its truths uncomfortable — doesn’t just steal people’s history from them. It impoverishes the future. More than that: without facing the past with courage, exploring it without succumbing to emotional panic, there is no future.

By Alissa Wilkinson FULL REVIEW

The Film Stage

Oct 21, 2022

With remarkably immediate cinematography and an intimate understanding of its subjects, Descendant becomes an essential ideal of how to tell a community’s story: not through distant talking heads, but capturing moving bodies through land and history, giving a voice to those that can often feel powerless.

By Jordan Raup FULL REVIEW

Los Angeles Times

Oct 20, 2022

With Descendant, Brown wisely chooses to be respectfully, poetically alert instead of imposing, as her use of archival footage shot by Hurston suggests: She’s adding to a pioneering Black filmmaker’s anthropological empathy, updating the conversation, witnessing the witnessers.

By Robert Abele FULL REVIEW

CNN

Oct 21, 2022

A bit slow-moving at first, the history gives way to a thoughtful conversation about how best to remember this history and honor its victims, while simultaneously highlighting the modern science surrounding identifying the ship and, thanks to DNA, potentially linking its captives to their descendants.

By Brian Lowry FULL REVIEW

Rolling Stone

Oct 31, 2022

With a single shot, Descendant ceases to be a story about the recovery of a ship. It rapidly morphs into something broader: a story about the land. Who owned it back in the 1800s, who owns it now, and what all of this means for everyone else.

By K. Austin Collins FULL REVIEW

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User Reviews

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User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 7 User Ratings

7.3

86% Positive
6 Ratings

0% Mixed
0 Ratings

14% Negative
1 Rating

User Reviews

View All

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 7 User Ratings

7.3

86% Positive
6 Ratings

0% Mixed
0 Ratings

14% Negative
1 Rating

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

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Production Company Higher Ground Productions, Participant, Two One Five Entertainment

Release Date Oct 21, 2022

Duration 1 h 49 m

Rating PG

Genres

Website https://www.netflix.com/title/81586731/

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Awards

Critics' Choice Documentary Awards

• 1 Win & 3 Nominations

Sundance Film Festival

• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

Austin Film Critics Association

• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

Where to Watch

Where to Watch

Top Cast

Theodore Arthur

Self

Gary Autrey

Self

Chris Davis

Self

Joycelyn Davis

Self

Willomina Davis

Self

James Delgado

Self

Bobby Dennison

Self

Mary Elliott

Self

Vivian Davis Figures

Self

Karlos Finley

Self

Mike Fitzgerald

Self

Shiela Flanagan

Self

Anderson Flen

Self

Michael Foster

Self

Patricia Frazier

Self

Vernetta Henson

Self

Fredrik T. Hiebert

Self

Herndon Inge

Self

Kern Jackson

Self

Cleon Jones

Self

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

User Reviews

Details

Details

Awards

Awards

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