Ganga Zumba

In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.

Quilombo dos Palmares was a real-life democratic society, created in Brazil in the 17th century. This incredibly elaborate (and surprisingly little-known) film traces the origins of Quilombo, which began as a community of freed slaves. The colony becomes a safe harbor for other outcasts of the world, including Indians and Jews. Ganga Zumba (Toni Tornado) becomes president of Quilombo, the first freely elected leader in the Western Hemisphere. Naturally, the ruling Portuguese want to subjugate Zumba and his followers, but the Quilombians are ready for their would-be oppressors. The end of this Brave New World is not pleasant, but the followers of Zumba and his ideals take to the hills, where they honor his memory to this day. Writer/director Carlos Diegues takes every available opportunity to compare the rise and fall of Quilombo with the state of affairs in modern-day Brazil.

“Rio 2096 – A Story of Love and Fury” is an animated film that portrays the love between an immortal hero and Janaína, the woman he has been in love with for 600 years. As a backdrop to the romance, the feature highlights four phases of Brazilian history: colonization, slavery, the Military Regime and the future, in 2096, when there will be a war for water.

Brazil, 18th century. The colony of Portugal endures a decline in gold production. A Portuguese minority rules over a corrupt and autocratic society. Joaquim is an efficient soldier, famous for capturing gold smugglers. While waiting for his promotion to Lieutenant, he leaves for a risky mission in search of new gold mines - the only way to buy the freedom of Blackie, a slave he is in love with. Inspired by the true story of Tiradentes, the first leader of the Brazilian revolutionary movement.

In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation, largely armed with spears and knives, defeats a well-equipped and organized Italian military bent on colonization.

WEST AFRICA 1869 - Slave trade is illegal. There is a revolt on a slave ship - twenty four men fight for their lives. Out-gunned, the revolt fails but a second uprising is planned.

Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.

A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.

On Christmas Eve 1770, a young African warrior, who three years prior had been captured and sold into slavery in America, leads a desperate group of runaway slaves as they attempt to reach freedom in the North.

On a photo shoot in Ghana, an American model slips back in time, becomes enslaved on a plantation and bears witness to the agony of her ancestral past.

Quincy Drew and Jason O’Rourke, a pair of friends and con men—the former white, the latter a Northern-born free Black man— travel from town to town in the pre–Civil War American West. In their scam, Quincy sells Jason into slavery, frees him, and the two move on to the next town of suckers . . . until a con gone wrong leads Jason into real danger.

A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.

The life of Carlota Joaquina, the Spanish infanta who met the prince of Portugal when she was only 10 years old and was immensely disappointed with her future husband.

Based on the biography of Luiz Gama, one of the most important characters in Brazilian history, a black man who used the laws and courts to free more than 500 slaves. Born of a free womb, Gama was sold into slavery at the age of 10 to pay off his father's gambling debts. Even as a slave, he became literate, studied and earned his own freedom, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. An abolitionist and republican who inspired an entire country.

O Descobrimento do Brasil (The Discovery of Brazil) is an impressive historical epic recreating Álvares Cabral’s voyage to the New World in 1500, with a score especially written by the renowned composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. One of the earliest examples of Brazilian cinema, this film depicts the perilous journey of Pedro Álvares Cabral’s armada from Portugal to Brazil. Though somewhat rudimentary compared to other films of the period, The Discovery of Brazil distinguishes itself with its scenes of indigenous people and Portuguese explorers on the beach, and in the imaginative lighting on board the ship. But the real star is the beautiful cantata by Villa-Lobos that permeates the film.

The difficulties faced by a young, sweet-hearted white slave targeted by the obsession of her lord in the Brazilian colonial time period.

Racism: A History is a three-part British documentary series originally broadcast on BBC Four in March 2007. It was part of the season of programmes broadcast on the BBC marking the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807, a landmark piece of legislation which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series explores the impact of racism on a global scale and chronicles the shifts in the perception of race and the history of racism in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. The series was narrated by Sophie Okonedo.

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

The miniseries tells in four episodes the story of powerful men that included Brazil in the world economic map in the first decades of the twentieth century: Francesco Matarazzo, Percival Farquhar, Giuseppe Martinelli and Guilherme Guinle. Visionaries, dreamers and polemic, they bet on developments that put the country on the path to become one of the economic powers of the twenty-first century.

Set during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica, we follow the trials, tribulations and survival of plantation slave July and her odious mistress Caroline.

The story of the man who embodied the great transformations of the turn of the century, acclaimed almost worldwide as the first man to fly a plane - the 14 Bis. Set in France and Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the production follows the aviator's trajectory, from his childhood at his family's coffee plantations in the interior of Minas Gerais, to the sophisticated Paris lounges and air clubs.

Follow young Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

Sergio Jadue, a lowly director of a small-town soccer club in Chile, unexpectedly finds himself at the head of the Chilean soccer association. Drunk with power, he becomes the protégé of soccer godfather Julio Grondona, as well as the FBI’s key to undoing the largest corruption scheme in the world of soccer.

A television miniseries based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped African American slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the Southern United States to freedom in the Northern states and Canada.

This documentary series details how Brazil was shaped by centuries of armed conflict, from the first conquerors to today's violence.

Caroline Randall Williams, an award-winning writer, cookbook author and restaurateur, travels the United States uncovering the fascinating, essential and often untold black stories behind American food.