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Directed by:
Marco Williams
Run Time (mins):
90:00 |
From the 1860s to the 1920s, dozens of towns and counties across America violently expelled entire African American communities, forcing thousands of black families to flee their homes. A century later, these towns remain all white. BANISHED tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn shocking histories. An INDEPENDENT LENS selection.
Co-production of ITVS in association with NBPC
Premiere: Independent Lens, February 19, 2008 at 10 PM
"A PBS Independent Lens documentary, BANISHED, based on that book…looks at how black residents were driven out of Forsyth County and two cities—Harrison, AK, and Pierce City, MO—and its ramifications decades later."
- Atlanta Constitution
"Williams, who calls his filmmaking a "personal mission," visits the nearly all-white towns, calmly asking uncomfortable questions... "
- The Washington Post
"The strengths of the 90-minute documentary are the connections it makes between the events of the past and the realities in those towns today… We are as stunned in 2008 by the bald racism and willful moral amnesia..."
- Boston Globe
"Ethnic cleansing in America? Just when you thought history could no longer shock you, this documentary makes your jaw drop into your lap."
- Philadelphia Weekly
"In BANISHED, Williams laid the issue squarely at the feet of those who are most culpable and the ones who should pay..."
- The Baltimore Sun
"Chilling and all too real, BANISHED exposes an American nightmare from which we have yet to awake."
- Philadelphia City Paper
"For Williams, BANISHED isn’t just about exploring the idea of reconciliation and reparations. It’s about igniting conversations…"
- Los Angeles Wave
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Grand Jury Prize, Miami International Film Festival
[2007]
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Erik Barnouw Award, Organization of American Historians
[2009]
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