HARRIET, the biopic on the life of Harriet Tubman is a deeply moving cinematic masterpiece. HARRIET was crafted by the critically acclaimed and award-winning director Kasi Lemmons.
Kasi’s first award winner was the Southern Gothic film Eve’s Bayou, followed by The Caveman’s Valentine (2001), the biopic Talk To Me (2007) about legendary radio D.J. Petey Green, and Black Nativity (2013).
In HARRIET, Kasi Lemmons tells the story of how Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist, and activist, escaped from slavery on her own in 1849 and became responsible for leading 70 other slaves to freedom.
Focus Features, HARRIET, official trailer.
Harriet Tubman was known to talk to God to lead her through the horrific challenges of fleeing a life of brutality and was often overcome by visions. Director Lemmons skillfully weaves montages and memories to illustrate Tubman’s visions and how those visualizations guided her as she repeatedly returned and escaped the clutches of her captures.
Cynthia Erivo is magnificent as Tubman. Erivo is a British actress, singer, and songwriter. She won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Celie in the revival of The Color Purple on Broadway and holds a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
Cynthia Erivo Talks About Portraying Harriet Tubman at this link.
Erivo is surrounded by an incredible cast in HARRIET which includes outstanding performances by Joe Alwyn, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Jennifer Nettles, Clarke Peters, Vaness Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Omar Dorsey and Heney Hunter Hall among others.
While attending the Focus Features film premier of HARRIET at the world-renown Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC. We were taken on a tour of the Harriet Tubman museum located two hours outside of DC.
The Harriet Tubman Museum & Education Center is located in the small town of Cambridge, Maryland and is were the Underground Railroad ‘conductor’ Harriet Tubman was born around 1822.
Opened in 1980, the Harriet Tubman Museum & Education Center is operated by dedicated volunteers, and they make sure Tubman’s story is told, and her legacy preserved.
The museum also features a powerful and moving mural of Harriet Tubman. The mural was commissioned by the Dorchester Center for the Arts and completed in May 2019 by artist Michael Rosato.
Touring the museum on the slave grounds that remain eerily similar to Harriet Tubman’s time, followed by of the movie HARRIET, was a profound experience. I felt the movie and Tubman’s history deeply.
When I say HARRIET is a ‘Must-See,’ I don’t mean it as a tagline. You must see HARRIET. You will leave this movie uplifted, proud, and rejuvenated.
HARRIET opens nationwide on November 1st.
Get Tickets: https://www.harrietfilmtickets.com/
Tanya Hart
Hollywood Live With Tanya Hart
Find my report with Leslie Odom, Jr. on the Harriet Tubman Story at this link. AURN @aurnonline #HollywoodLive segment with #HARRIET star @leslieodomjr, who plays abolitionist #WilliamStill, an integral part of the #UndergroundRailroad. http://bit.ly/32EDstN