Actress Jada Pinkett Smith took a seat behind the camera to produce the new political documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.
Hailed by the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival as “a fascinating chronicle of justice and strength,” Free Angela tells the dramatic story of how a young professor’s social justice activism implicates her in a botched kidnapping attempt that ends with a bloody shootout, four dead, and her name on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.
“You think you know the story of Angela Davis, but you do not. So when I saw this documentary I was just compelled to assist this movie in any way I could,” Pinkett Smith said during part 2 of her interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon.
“What really inspired me to participate, is that it’s a very important part of American history that’s kinda just brushed underneath the rug.”
theGRIO VIDEO: Jada Pinkett Smith responds to parenting critics
Pinkett-Smith along with her husband Will Smith and Jay-Z, serve as executive producers for Free Angela. The Jason’s Lyric star says that collaborating with Jay-Z was a huge learning experience.
“I’ve learned a lot about partnerships and alliances in regards to working with Jay-Z,” Pinkett Smith confessed. “I saw I have a community of powerful men that I’m connected to, that I want to have them stand with us, and stand with Angela and say ‘we have not forgotten you, yes we do remember.’”
“When I showed the movie to Will and I showed the movie to Jay-Z, they were both as floored as I was, and I said ‘look, as our soldiers, as our warriors, I need you to back this film.’”
Free Angela is distributed by Codeblack Films and is now playing exclusively in select AMC theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta and Detroit.
Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter at @WitherspoonC