The film directed by Oscar nomineeRaoul Peck(I Am Not Your Negro) is now streaming onPrime Video.
Its where they were born, its where their ancestors were.
Its where they have all their memories.
Property along Silver Dollar Road in Carteret Co., N.C.Prime Video
Its where they have their livelihood.
Thats the most important thing.
If the family had stuck together 100 percent, perhaps all that later transpired could have been avoided.
Gertrude Reels (seated) surrounded by her children.Prime Video/photo by Wayne Lawrence
Its a complicated legal story, as Peck readily acknowledges.
It wouldve been a dead battle from the get-go, the director says.
So I decided to concentrate on the family itself and their voice.
That means giving them the opportunity to tell their story, and especially because they are great storytellers.
They are incredible personalities.
They are incredible, intelligent people who know how to tell what happened to them.
There is a vast Black community… in that vicinity.
Harassed, that is, by white people in law enforcement or other positions of power.
But across many decades it grew in value.
Whites began to build mansions along nearby waterfront areas and ply their yachts in the idyllic sounds and bays.
We see exactly what was behind it.
Thats what it is.
But Melvin and Licurtis told a judge they wouldnt leave the property they had forever called home.
The judge tossed them in jail on contempt charges.
Normally, a jail term in a civil contempt case would last a few months, if that.
Not so for Melvin and Licurtis.
Earlier this month, it was named to the DOC NYC shortlist of the years best feature documentaries.
He views the dynamics of Black land seizure in the U.S. in broader historical terms.
And the very idea of land property is an imported idea on this continent.
And their only task was to preserve that land, to be the best custodian of that land.
When the European came, they came with the concept of property, of commodity.
So, its just a few centuries back.
We are still in the middle of it.
Peck adds, Land until today is an incredible, important piece of stability, of economic stability.
And minorities are still being deprived of it.
Even urban gentrification is exactly the same process.
And its always quote, unquote legal.
