Assata Aka Joanne Chesimard
– Through dramatic re-creation, archival newsreel footage and revealing interviews, director Fred Bake..
Through dramatic re-creation, archival newsreel footage and revealing interviews, director Fred Baker's docudrama explores the controversial murder case centered on Black Panther activist and political exile Assata Shakur. In 1977, Shakur was dubiously convicted for the shooting death of a New Jersey state trooper and was sentenced to life in prison, only to escape two years later and seek refuge in Cuba.
15 Feb 2008
English
Fred Baker
Fred Baker (original screenplay)
Will Blagrove, Rick Borgia, J.D. Brown, Kathleen Cleaver
Assata Shakur, the firebrand revolutionary Black Panther, was falsely convicted and sentenced to life in a widely publicized case involving a 1973 shootout on the NJ Turnpike, which resulted in the deaths of a Panther leader and a NJ State Trooper. In 2006, Justin, a NY filmmaker, and Asha, a student journalist cross paths at a Harlem Street Festival, and their passions soon ignite. They discover by chance that both are intensely caught up in the controversial story of Assata. While serving the 3rd year of her life sentence, in 1979, Assata effected a daring escape from a maximum security prison in New Jersey. After a number of years in hiding, in 1984, she emerged in Cuba in protective exile..where she lives to this day. Her life as a fugitive political exile, a fighter for freedom and social justice, has attracted a worldwide following.