Samuel L. Jackson is set to host a six-part Canadian documentary about the horrors of slavery as revealed through underwater archaeology, it was announced Monday at MIPCOM.
“For me, this is much more than a TV series,” Jackson said in a statement. “For me, Enslaved is an attempt to give a voice to the millions whose voices were silenced.”
The doc series from Canadian indie producer Associated Producers will be directed by Emmy-winning Simcha Jacobovici, whose earlier documentaries like The Naked Archaeologist and The Exodus Decoded also hinged on archaeological findings.
Fremantle has taken the global rights, excluding North America and Israel, to Enslaved, which marks 400 years since the first African was brought to the New World as a slave. The series will retrace the sea voyage that brought millions of Africans to a life of slavery in the New World as it reveals sunken slave ships that went down with their human cargo.
Jackson is a licensed diver and social rights activist, and his own ancestors come from Gabon in West Africa.
Jacobovici, who also executive produces Enslaved and who worked with James Cameron on Atlantis Rising, said his latest documentary aims to tell “a global story of suffering and resistance, of oppression and overcoming, through the adventure of finding and marking sunken slave ships.”
Enslaved is produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Bienstock and executive produced by Jackson, LaTanya Jackson, Eli Selden, Rob Lee, Jacobovici and Yaron Niski.
