Wilmington 10 – USA 10000

In October 1972, ten civil rights activists—nine Black and one white, almost all high school students—were wrongfully convicted of arson, each serving nearly a decade before an appeal won their release. Wilmington 10 – USA 10000 gives a kaleidoscopic portrait of their fight for freedom through interviews with family members and political activist Assata Shakur. Visionary director Haile Gerima masterfully connects the injustices in the case with historical legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, the 1898 Wilmington Massacre, and contemporary violence by white supremacists. The film remained nearly unseen for decades but has gained renewed attention thanks to a 4K digital restoration by the Academy Film Archive. (120 mins., 4K DCP)

Showing before the feature is Christopher Harris’s Dreams Under Confinement, which examines the modern carceral landscape using Google Earth and the Chicago Police Department’s scanner calls for help during the 2020 protests. The film was commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts as part of the Cinetracts ’20 project. (2 mins., digital video)

See the complete Unorthodocs 2023 lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Wilmington 10 – USA 10000, courtesy of the filmmaker.