Bound by Blood - The Elaine Massacre Then & Now

Bound by Blood exhumes an almost 100-year old tragedy deep in the Arkansas Delta in which hundreds of black sharecroppers were massacred by white posses and federal troops near the town of Elaine.

Funding Initiative
Diversity Development Fund
Llewellyn Smith
Producer/ Director

Llewellyn Smith

Llewellyn Smith is co-founder and project director at Blue Spark Collaborative and has created a number of award-winning films with his producing partner Christine Herbes-Sommers at Vital Pictures. He is the producer and director of Bound by Blood -- The Elaine Massacre Then & Now. Smith was co-executive producer for the PBS series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?… Show more (2008) — a look at the surprising impact social and economic conditions have in determining health and longevity. He also served as director-producer for the Vital Pictures documentary Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness (2010) a look at the consequences of race identity politics.

In 2012, Smith directed and produced Vital Pictures’ Gaining Ground: Building Community on Dudley Street, which follows community organizing and community building effort over a two-year period in a remarkable low-income Boston neighborhood where he grew up. Other films or series contributions include Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (1997), Race: The Power of an Illusion (2003), Forgotten Genius (2007), and American Denial (for Vital Pictures, 2013). Show less

Other ITVS Films
American Denial
Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness
Producer/Researcher

Annie Stopford

Producer/Editor

Franziska Blome

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The Film

Bound by Blood exhumes an almost 100-year old tragedy deep in the Arkansas Delta in which hundreds of black sharecroppers were massacred by white posses and federal troops near the town of Elaine. With reverberations still lingering today in the lives of descendants and locals, the film explores how human consequences of history continue to shape economic opportunities, identity and meaning for generations.

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