Exclusive Clip From ‘Emancipation’ Starring Will Smith
Blackfilmandtv.com has been provided with an exclusive clip to Apple’s Emancipation, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith. The film is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Also starring in the film are Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, Mustafa Shakir, Steven Ogg, Grant Harvey, Ronnie Gene Bivens, Jayson Warner Smith, Jabbar Lewis, Damien D. Smith, Michael Luwoye, Aaron Moten, and Imani Pullum.
Smith stars as Peter, a runaway slave who flees Louisiana in hopes of traveling north to freedom. “Emancipation” is inspired by the true story of “Whipped Peter,” an enslaved person who emancipated himself from a southern plantation and joined the Union Army. In 1863, photos taken of Peter during an Army medical examination first appeared in Harper’s Weekly. One image, known as “The Scourged Back,” shows the scars from a whipping on Peter’s bare back, illustrating the true cruelty of slavery and ultimately contributed to growing public opposition.
Foster stars opposite Smith, playing Fassel, a man who doggedly pursues any enslaved person who attempts to flee to freedom, including Peter. Bingwa appears as Peter’s beloved wife Dodienne. Owuor plays Gordon, an enslaved man working at the same camp as Peter, while Shakir and Smith are Cailloux and Ingraham, free Black men who also serves in the Union Army.