Raoul Peck returns to the big screen with the documentary “Silver Dollar Road,” based on the harrowing American story of the Reels family in North Carolina.
Directed by the Oscar-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro” filmmaker, “Silver Dollar Road” follows the story of the Reels family as told by the matriarch Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, two strong-willed women vying to take back their ancestors’ land in the South alongside their brothers and uncles Melvin and Licurtis, who were wrongfully imprisoned for eight years, the longest amount of time anyone has ever been sentenced for civil contempt in North Carolina history.
The official synopsis adds that though they were finally released from jail in 2019, Melvin, Licurtis, Kim, and Mamie continue their painstaking struggle to reclaim the land that was unjustly ripped from their ancestral embrace.
The film is set to premiere at TIFF and is based on the 2019 ProPublica article that exposed the injustices toward the Reels family over the land that belonged to them since Emancipation-era America.
Writer-director Peck produces along with Rémi Grellety, Blair Foster, and Hébert Peck.
Peck previously told IndieWire, “I consider myself first of all an artist. My work is about my
creativity — why I create and not for whom. I hope to touch as many people as possible. My concern is not to be marginalized and at the same time not to compromise. I’m between those two lines. As many people can see my work, is as happy as I am. I was lucky enough to make my films without having commercial goals. I do have to make sure I have the money to make my films, but it’s not about whether they are going to make millions.”
“Silver Dollar Road” premieres in select theaters October 13 and on Prime Video October 21. Check out the trailer below.
