Descendant – 6.5

There is little in the way of dramatic arc or suspense in this documentary about the discovery of the last slave ship in Mobile Bay in 2020. Rather, the film should be seen as a portrait of the community of descendants from that ship’s cargo still living in the Africatown district of Mobile. The film is provocative, whether intentional or not, in exploring the expectations of the descendants: their desires to get relief from the surrounding chemical plants, or reparations, or even apology or acknowledgement from the descendants of the ship owner. Most interesting to me was the fact of this community of descendants from slaves who were brought over illegally in 1860, and were slaves for only five years before they were emancipated.