America ReFramed, AfroPop
Commuted
Released after 23 years in prison for nonviolent drug offenses, a mother reconnects with her family and reflects on the legacy of the War on Drugs.
The First Plantation
The First Plantation is a personal investigation of Barbados, from its colonial past through its declaration of sovereignty and current quest for reparations.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Director
Jason F Jeffers
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a filmmaker from Barbados who has produced award-winning shorts that have screened at Sundance, BlackStar, TIFF, and more. Jeffers is a co-founder of Third Horizon Film Festival, and was previously a journalist with The Miami Herald. He is a 2024 Creative Capital fellow and a 2023 United States Artists (USA) fellow.
Producer
Darcy McKinnon
Darcy McKinnon produces documentaries; her most recent release is Suzannah Herbert’s Natchez, premiering at Tribeca 2025, scheduled for broadcast on Independent Lens in 2026. Other credits include A King Like Me, Roleplay, Commuted, Algiers, America, Under G-d, Look at Me: XXXTENTACION, and The Neutral Ground.
- Other ITVS Films
- Commuted
- Natchez
- The Neutral Ground
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Producer
Romola Lucas
Romola O. Lucas is a filmmaker and attorney from Guyana. She is co-founder and executive director of Third Horizon, a Miami-based filmmaking collective and film festival centering cinema of the Caribbean and its diaspora. Lucas is also the founder of the Caribbean Film Academy, Timehri Film Festival in Guyana, and Studio Anansi TV.
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The Film
Drax Hall in Barbados is the oldest continuously-owned and operated sugar plantation in the Americas. It served as a template for subsequent plantations and is still functioning today. The plantation’s inheritance by Richard Drax, one of the wealthiest members of Britain’s parliament, ignited protests within an intensifying debate over reparations for the descendants of transatlantic slavery. In November 2021, Barbados broke away from the British crown and declared itself a republic, making international headlines. Filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers flew home to witness the ceremony and explore the island of his childhood. He delves into its history, from the legacy of Drax Hall to the present-day reparations campaign mounted by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley against Richard Drax.
Drax Hall was built within the British colonial experiment that created the Barbados Slave Code of 1661. This served as the first legal justification for slavery in the New World and the foundation for slave codes across the American South. Jeffers links the racist modalities in his homeland to those in his new home in the U.S. The First Plantation grapples with racial reconciliation in lands where the families of slaveholders still profit from slavery’s vestiges.
