Name: The Last Slave
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2007-03-11
Duration: 50 min
Cast: David Monteith

Challenges preconceptions that takes slavery beyond a black/white issue and presents a shocking failure of humanity

For many African-Caribbean's, tracing family history is only possible as far as a few generations. However for David Monteith more than this is possible thanks to his ancestor Archibald telling his past to a missionary in Jamaica, where he was a slave then a missionary himself. Using his resting point as the start of the journey, David tries to piece together more by travelling back to Nigeria to uncover more about his great, great grandfather and the manner in which he found himself in Jamaica, working as a slave.

Shown as part of the series of films around the 200th anniversary of Parliament abolishing the slave trade act, this film is an interesting contrast to the general wringing of hands and endless apologising of white people in the media. You may have guessed that I found such a view as rather simplistic and unhelpful, with privileged middle-class whites walking in chains etc to represent their sorrow  which personally I thought was offensive. This film actually looks beyond the simple black/white divide as it follows David along his family history and it uncovers many things that show the terrible trade in a different light.

The film has been embraced by those wishing to play down the white man's role in slavery but this is incorrect and can only be done if you cherry pick from the content  which I think says more about those viewers than the film. It follows David as he learns how African tribes and families most likely sold Archibald into slavery, how Archibald was one of the favoured slaves on the ship and how he rose to a sort of slave master before eventually buying his freedom. The strength of the film is never questioning the horror of the slave trade but yet challenging what we think about it. Although the message is clear it is fascinating to watch David stereotypical (his words) view of the slave trade challenged. He seems genuinely rocked by some of the things he learns and this is captured really well here.

Overall then this is a fascinating and challenging film. In the face of loads of white people chaining themselves up (why?) this film challenges stereotypes about the slave trade and on top of not downplaying it actually makes it more horrifying. Surely it is easier to accept a terrible part of history by one group (whites) on a different group (blacks) than it is to see the trade as part of a failure of humanity  I find the latter much more shocking than the former, which I think is the point of the film.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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The Last Slave

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