Concordia's Sluberski Film Series to Feature 'Ghosts of Amistad,' Q&A with Best-Selling Author

From Concordia College:

Concordia College will host a screening of the film Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels on November 5 at 7pm. The film is the winner of the 2015 John E. O’Conner Award for Best Documentary Film by the American Historical Association.

The film Ghosts of Amistad is based on Marcus Rediker’s The Amistad Rebellion. It chronicles a trip to Sierra Leone in 2013 to visit the home villages of the people who seized the slave schooner Amistad in 1839, to interview elders about local memory of the case, and to search for the long-lost ruins of Lomboko, the slave trading factory where their cruel transatlantic voyage began. Award-winning director Tony Buba uses the knowledge of villagers, fishermen, and truck drivers to recover a lost history from below in the struggle against slavery.

Kenneth C. Davis, a Concordia College alumnus and best-selling author, will introduce the documentary and host an interactive Q&A discussion with Mr. Buba. Mr. Davis’s book Don’t Know Much About® History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned, spent 35 consecutive weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, giving rise to his popular Don’t Know Much About® series. Mr. Davis’s recently released book, In the Shadow of Liberty, The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives, shares the stories of five enslaved people who were “owned” by four of our greatest presidents, detailing the role slavery played in the founding of America.

Marcus Rediker, said of In the Shadow of Liberty, “By exploring the humanity of people held in bondage by early American presidents, Kenneth C. Davis once again turns American mythology into history. Read the book and be grateful.”

The screening and interactive panel will be featured in the Sommer Center for Worship and the Performing Arts on the Concordia campus in Bronxville. A reception and book signing featuring Mr. Davis’s In the Shadow of Liberty will follow. Sponsored by the Friends of Concordia, this event is free and open to the public.

Click here to RSVP for a free ticket.

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