Independent Lens
WE WANT THE FUNK!
WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots.
Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Centering the experiences of captive Africans, Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade examines both the human and economic impact of the transatlantic slave trade.
- Length
- 4 episodes x 60 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Series and Special Projects
Producer/Director
Stanley Nelson
Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, MacArthur Fellow, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. President Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal. Nelson has directed and produced numerous films, including Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, and Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple.
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The Film
Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade delves into the transatlantic slave trade and its role in shaping the modern world. European empires waged war to control the trade and cash crops grown by enslaved labor played a significant role in global capitalism. The slave trade displaced populations across continents and created a Black diaspora throughout the New World.
Spanning four centuries, this four-part series illustrates the human costs amidst the economic impact, centering the experiences of Africans themselves. The first episode focuses on the origins of the global slave trade in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and West African kingdoms. Episode two traces British domination and the establishment of the plantation economy, while laws controlled enslaved workers’ movements and defined slavery as a permanent condition based on race. In the third episode, resistance is explored through the thousands who suffered the Middle Passage and fought back. An abolitionist movement grew as rebellion increased, and the Haitian Revolution established the world’s first Black-led nation. Lastly, the final episode looks at the modes of enslavement that persisted after the official abolition of the slave trade in Britain and the United States in 1807, including traders that continued to smuggle captives and the role of politicians and merchants in sustaining the practice.
Through first-person accounts of captive Africans, archival images, graphics, and animation, Creating the New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade brings lesser-known narratives to life from Africa, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and South America.
