47 Films about slavery

Andanggaman is a 2000 historical drama film directed by Roger Gnoan M'Bala. It was an international co-production between the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Switzerland, Italy and France.

Aferim! is a 2015 Romanian drama film directed by Radu Jude and produced by Ada Solomon. It was screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where Radu Jude won the Silver Bear for Best Director. It was selected as the Romanian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.

Amazing Grace is a 2006 British-American biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted, about the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire, led by William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the 1772 hymn "Amazing Grace". The film also recounts the experiences of John Newton as a crewman on a slave ship and subsequent religious conversion, which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement.

The Animatrix is a 2003 adult animated science fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. It is a compilation of nine animated short films based on The Matrix film series, which was written and produced by the Wachowskis. Four of the shorts were also written by the Wachowskis. The film details the backstory of The Matrix series, including the original war between humankind and machines which led to the creation of the titular Matrix, in addition to providing side stories that expand the universe and tie into the main film series.

Arabian Nights is a 1974 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Its original Italian title is Il fiore delle mille e una notte, which means The Flower of the One Thousand and One Nights.

Ashanti is a 1979 action adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Kabir Bedi, Beverly Johnson, Omar Sharif, Rex Harrison, and William Holden. It is based on the 1974 novel Ébano by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa, with a screenplay written by Stephen Geller and an uncredited George MacDonald Fraser. The story is set against the background of modern-day slave trading, with a man who determinedly takes on a perilous journey in order to find his beautiful wife, who has been kidnapped by brutal slave traders.

Audrey is a 1916 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company and released through Paramount Pictures. The film stars Pauline Frederick and was directed by Robert G. Vignola. It is based on a novel of the same name about an orphan by Mary Johnston. The film is now considered lost.

Battlefield Earth is a 2000 American science fiction action film based on the 1982 novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It was directed by Roger Christian and stars John Travolta, Barry Pepper, and Forest Whitaker. The film follows a rebellion against the alien Psychlos, who have ruled Earth for 1,000 years.

Belle is a 2013 British period drama film directed by Amma Asante, written by Misan Sagay and produced by Damian Jones. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Sarah Gadon, Tom Felton, and James Norton.

Bilal: A New Breed of Hero is a 2015 English-language Arabic 3D computer-animated action-adventure film about the birth of Islam, produced by Barajoun Entertainment and co-directed by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal. With a story by Jamal, the screenplay was written by Alavi, Alex Kronemer, Michael Wolfe and Yassin Kamel. With this film, Jamal aimed to depict heroes from the history of the Arabian Peninsula.

Buoyancy is a 2019 Australian drama film directed by Rodd Rathjen. It was selected as the Australian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Burn! is a 1969 Italian war drama film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and starring Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez and Renato Salvatori. The music was composed by Ennio Morricone. The fictional story focuses on the creation of a tropical republic in the Caribbean, and the events that follow it. Brando plays an agent of the British government, named after the American filibuster William Walker, who manipulates a slave revolt to serve the interests of the sugar trade. The screenwriters also drew on the experiences of intelligence agent Edward Lansdale, who served the United States government in the Philippines and Indochina in the 1950s through 60s.

Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl is a 1954 Action-adventure film about a woman who disguises herself as a slave girl in order to try to gain information from Captain Kidd about his hidden treasure. The film was directed by Lew Landers, and stars Anthony Dexter, Eva Gabor, and Alan Hale Jr..

The Chipmunk Adventure is a 1987 American musical animated film based on the Saturday-morning cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks. Directed by Janice Karman and written by Karman and Ross Bagdasarian Jr., it stars the voices of Karman, Bagdasarian, and Dody Goodman, and follows the Chipmunks and the Chipettes as they go on a hot air balloon race around the world that is the cover for a diamond smuggling ring.

The film El Cimarrón follows the lives of two African slaves brought to Puerto Rico during the era of slavery in the 19th Century. It is based on the life of Marcos Xiorro who conspired and planned a slave revolt in 1821.

Cloud Atlas is a 2012 epic science fiction film written and directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. Based on the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, the film has multiple plots occurring during six different eras in time, with the cast performing in different roles.

Cobra Verde is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. It was based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel The Viceroy of Ouidah. The film depicts the life of a fictional slave trader. It was filmed on location in Brazil, Colombia and Ghana.

Dixie Days is a 1930 animated short film which was produced by The Van Beuren Corporation and released by Pathe.

Emperor is a 2020 American historical drama film directed by Mark Amin, written by Mark Amin and Pat Charles. The film stars Dayo Okeniyi, James Cromwell, Kat Graham, and Bruce Dern. It is based on the true story of an enslaved person, Shields Green, nicknamed Emperor, who escaped to freedom and participated in abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Exodus: Gods and Kings is a 2014 British-American biblical epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, and Steven Zaillian. The film stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley. It is inspired by the biblical episode of The Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and related in the Book of Exodus. Development on the film was first announced by Scott in June 2012. Filming occurred primarily in Spain beginning in October 2013, with additional filming at Pinewood Studios in England.

Film has been the most influential medium in the presentation of the history of slavery to the general public. The American film industry has had a complex relationship with slavery, and until recent decades often avoided the topic. Films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939) became controversial because they gave a favorable depiction. In 1940, The Santa Fe Trail gave a strong condemnation of abolitionist John Brown's attacks on slavery. The American civil rights movement in the 1950s made defiant slaves into heroes.

La Tratta delle bianche is a 1952 Italian-language crime film directed by Luigi Comencini. It stars Eleonora Rossi Drago, Marc Lawrence, Ettore Manni, Tamara Lees, Barbara Florian, Silvana Pampanini, and Vittorio Gassman.

Harriet is a 2019 American biographical film directed by Kasi Lemmons, who also wrote the screenplay with Gregory Allen Howard. It stars Cynthia Erivo as abolitionist Harriet Tubman, with Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe in supporting roles. A biography about Harriet Tubman had been in the works for years, with several actresses, including Viola Davis, rumored to star. Erivo was cast in February 2017, and much of the cast and crew joined the following year. Filming took place in Virginia from October to December 2018.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, a prequel to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring Harrison Ford reprising his role as the title character and the second film to use THX technology after Return of the Jedi. After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritualistic human sacrifice in honor of the goddess, Kali.

Jake Speed is a 1986 American action adventure comedy directed and produced by Andrew Lane, with Wayne Crawford, and William Fay. It was written by Lane and Crawford, and starred Crawford in the title role, alongside Dennis Christopher, Karen Kopins and John Hurt.

Live Cargo is a 2016 dramatic thriller which premiered in competition on April 15, 2016 at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film was directed by Logan Sandler, his first feature film. Live Cargo's script was co-written by Sandler and Thymaya Payne, who produced and directed the award-winning documentary Stolen Seas. The film stars Dree Hemingway, Keith Stanfield, and Robert Wisdom. Live Cargo was featured alongside five other films in the Champs-Élysées Film Festival's U.S. in Progress Paris section, as well as participating in IFP's 11th annual Independent Filmmaker Lab.

Mosley is a 2019 computer-animated film produced by New Zealand animation company Huhu Studios. It was written and directed by Kirby Atkins who stars in the title role along with his young daughter Leah, playing the character of Rue. The film also stars Lucy Lawless, John Rhys-Davies, Temuera Morrison and Rhys Darby. The film was released in New Zealand on 10 October 2019 by Rialto Distribution. It is the first official New Zealand–Chinese co-production.

Passage du milieu is a 1999 docudrama directed by Guy Deslauriers about the trans-Atlantic voyage of black slaves from the West Coast of Africa to the Caribbean, a part of the triangular slave trade route called the Middle Passage. It portrays the transportation of slaves from Senegal to the sugar plantations of Martinique and the miserable and often fatal conditions on board the slave ship. The script is by Patrick Chamoiseau based on a scenario by Claude Chonville. It was a Martinique-Senegal-France co-production and was screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.

Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. The sixth film in the Planet of the Apes franchise, it was loosely adapted from Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel of the same name and the 1968 film version. It tells the story of astronaut Leo Davidson crash-landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes. The apes treat humans as slaves, but with the help of an ape named Ari, Leo starts a rebellion.

Pompeii is a 2014 romantic historical disaster film produced and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. An international co-production between the United States, Germany and Canada, it is inspired by and based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that destroyed Pompeii, a city of the Roman Empire. The film stars Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, with Jared Harris, and Kiefer Sutherland.

The Price of Sugar is a 2013 Dutch drama film based on the eponymous novel by Cynthia McLeod.

The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated religious musical film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The first feature film from DreamWorks to be traditionally animated, it is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells, the film features songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer. The voice cast consists of Val Kilmer in a dual role, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Sansho the Bailiff is a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Based on a 1915 short story of the same name by Mori Ōgai, which in turn was based on a folktale, it follows two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery.

Singapore Sling: The Man Who Loved a Corpse is a 1990 Greek black and white horror underground art film directed by Nikos Nikolaidis and regarded as his magnum opus. Considered a difficult film to label while still managing to develop something of a cult following throughout the years nonetheless, it was shot in a bizarre manner somewhat resembling film noir or neo-noir and black comedy as well as the exploitation, thriller, and crime genres mixed with some elements of eroticism and horror with sex being used as a power game and received a theatrical release in Greece on 6 December 1990.

Skin Trade is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham. It stars Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, and Ron Perlman. Lundgren wrote the film with Gabriel Dowrick and Steven Elder, while John Hyams performed uncredited script revisions. The film centers around New Jersey police detective Nick Cassidy, as he travels to Asia intent on killing the man who murdered his family, mobster Viktor Dragovic.

Slave Ship is a 1937 film directed by Tay Garnett and starring Warner Baxter and Wallace Beery. The supporting cast features Mickey Rooney, George Sanders, Jane Darwell, and Joseph Schildkraut. It is one of very few films out of the forty-eight that Beery made during the sound era for which he did not receive top billing.

Souls at Sea is a 1937 American adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. Based on a story by Ted Lesser, the film is about a first mate on a slave ship who frees the slaves on the ship after a mutiny overthrows the ship's captain. The title of this film was spoofed in the Laurel and Hardy comedy film Saps at Sea (1940). The supporting cast features Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Joseph Schildkraut, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Tully Marshall, Monte Blue, and an uncredited Alan Ladd and Edward Van Sloan.

Squanto: A Warrior's Tale is a 1994 Canadian-American historical drama action adventure film. It was written by Darlene Craviato and directed by Xavier Koller. It is very loosely based on the actual historical Native American figure Squanto, and his life prior to and including the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. It stars Adam Beach as the lead role of Squanto. It was originally released theatrically on October 28, 1994, and was shot in Louisbourg and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space-opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm, distributed by 20th Century Fox and starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Pernilla August, and Frank Oz. It is the first installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and begins the "Skywalker saga," though it was the fourth film to be produced. Set 32 years before the original trilogy, during the era of the Galactic Republic, the plot follows Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi as they try to protect Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo in hopes of securing a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute. Joined by Anakin Skywalker—a young slave with unusually strong natural powers of the Force—they simultaneously contend with the mysterious return of the Sith.

Tamango is a 1958 French/Italian film directed by John Berry, a black-listed American director who exiled himself to Europe. Dorothy Dandridge and Curd Jürgens star in the film with co-stars Alex Cressan and Jean Servais. Based on the short story by Prosper Mérimée first published in 1829, the film is about a slave ship on its crossing from Africa to Cuba, the various people it carries and the slaves' rebellion while on board.

The Ten Commandments is a 2006 miniseries that dramatizes the biblical story of Moses. It ran on the ABC TV network.

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in VistaVision, and released by Paramount Pictures. Based on the 1949 novel Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, the 1859 novel Pillar of Fire by J. H. Ingraham, the 1937 novel On Eagle's Wings by A. E. Southon, and the Book of Exodus, The Ten Commandments dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and thereafter leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. The film stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.

Tula: The Revolt is a 2013 historical drama film that was directed by Jeroen Leinders. The film tells the life story of the slave Tula who lead the Slave Revolt of 1795 on Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies. The film premiered on 4 July 2013 in the Netherlands.

Vazante is a Brazilian-Portuguese historical drama adventure film about slavery in 1820s Brazil, directed by Daniela Thomas. The film premiered in the Panorama section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Walk Like a Dragon is a 1960 American Western film directed by James Clavell, written by James Clavell and Daniel Mainwaring, and starring Jack Lord, Nobu McCarthy, James Shigeta, Mel Tormé, Josephine Hutchinson, Rodolfo Acosta and Benson Fong. It was released on June 1, 1960, by Paramount Pictures.

Young Toscanini is a 1988 Italian-French biographical drama film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring C. Thomas Howell and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Zero Years is a 2005 Greek dramatic experimental independent underground art film directed by Nikos Nikolaidis, his final film.