Barry Jenkins talks about his limited series 'The Underground Railroad'
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins says his upcoming limited series The Underground Railroad, about a woman's struggle to escape slavery in search of freedom in the Antebellum South, is his way of honoring and recontextualizing the history of people who came before him. Jenkins, whose film Moonlight won the best picture Oscar in 2017, serves as the showrunner and director on the 10-episode series.
Series will release on Amazon Prime on May 14
The series will be released on Amazon Prime Video on May 14. Critics have praised the 41-year-old director in the early reviews of the show, which he has adapted from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
It's my way of paying tribute to my foreparents: Jenkins
Asked about the importance of taking ownership of stories of the African-American heritage, Jenkins said the show was his way of representing and paying tributes to his foreparents. "I think that's why, to me, it was important to take this project on. As an artist and a person, I've evolved to the point where creating these images is how I express myself," he said.
History has been controlled by a concentrated group: Jenkins
"History has been framed for us whether through the history books that I grew up reading in class or as you say, in the piece of media that have been created speaking toward this time in American history," the director said. "They come from a very concentrated point of view. They've been controlled by a very concentrated group," he said.
What is 'The Underground Railroad' all about?
In reality, the underground railroad was not an actual railroad but a complex, secretive network of people, safe houses helping people enslaved in Southern plantations escape to free states in America or Canada. Whitehead's novel tells the story's alternate version where an actual underground railroad exists. The story chronicles Cora Randall's (played by Thuso Mbedu) desperate bid for freedom in the Antebellum South.
The series has been shot in Georgia
The series has been shot in Georgia, which was a slaveholding state and some of the images stand out for nature's bounty and also the brutality and the unimaginable atrocities that African-American people were subjected to. Jenkins said he does not agree with the notion that it was somehow "ethically wrong" to recreate the time period with aesthetics.
'Beauty that you see in our images undoubtedly existed'
The director argued it would have been "almost untruthful to the experience as it was lived by my ancestors." "The beauty that you see in our images undoubtedly existed at the time that all these very horrific and brutal things were happening," he said.
The series also stars Thuso Mbedu and Chase W Dillon
Jenkins added he wanted to be true to the experience of his ancestors by depicting both beauty and horror in the same frame. The Underground Railroad also stars Thuso Mbedu, Chase W Dillon, Aaron Pierre, William Jackson Harper, Sheila Atim, Amber Gray, Peter De Jersey, Chukwudi Iwuji, Damon Herriman, Lily Rabe, Irone Singleton, Mychal-Bella Bowman, Marcus "MJ" Gladney, Jr, Will Poulter, and Peter Mullan.
Jenkins is also the Executive Producer
Jenkins is also the Executive Producer along with Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt, and Colson Whitehead. The Underground Railroad is a production of Plan B, Pastel, and Big Indie with Amazon Studios.
