In 1860, 110 people from the West African country now known as Benin were illegally transported to Mobile, Alabama, aboard The Clotilda, a ship that was burned by its owner, Timothy Meaher, to cover up his crimes. More than a century later, Margaret Brown’s new documentary Descendant tells the story of the families of those brought over on The Clotilda, who now form the community of Africatown, and how the recent discovery of the shipwreck has compelled them to grapple with a century of mythmaking, the lasting forces of oppression and a shared path toward justice.

“The story of The Clotilda was not a ‘myth’ or a ‘legend’ as it was often referred to by white people, but an already present history, just one that was not told or accepted as the dominant ‘American’ narrative,” Brown says. 

That story was most recently told in Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo. Published in 2018, almost 90 years after Hurston wrote it, her book is based on interviews with the last known surviving descendant of the 1860 voyage, Cudjoe Lewis. Barracoon put to paper an oral history that has been told for generations, and its belated publication helped lead to the recent discovery of the wrecked ship. 

But, as resident of Africatown Joycelyn Davis notes in the trailer: “It’s not all about that ship.” Rather, Descendant speaks to the shared history, present challenges and futures of the current community in Africatown — including their relationship with the white descendants of Timothy Meaher.

Descendant was executive produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who is himself a descendant of Charlie Lewis, one of the enslaved passengers of The Clotilda. “I hope Descendant is one of those films you have to have a conversation about once you see it,” Thompson says. “I want people to see it to give them an entryway into thinking about our country’s history.” Directed by Margaret Brown, whose most recent film The Great Invisible tackled the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it’s produced by Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media, the production companies behind 2019’s Oscar-winning American Factory.

Descendant will premiere in select theaters this October and on Netflix Oct. 21.