Ava Duvernay may have just finished the gripping third season of Queen Sugar, but she already has a new project that’s exciting fans and history enthusiasts.
A short film from the award-winning director that was previously only available at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington D.C., will now make its television debut on the OWN network next week.
August 28: A Day in the Life of a People, written, produced and directed by Duvernay, explores different moments important to African-American history that occurred on the same day in various years.
The film centers on the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act on August 28, 1833; the lynching of Emmett Till on August 28, 1955; the first radio airplay from Motown Records on August 28, 1961 with The Marvelettes “Please Mr Postman;” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech during the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963; Hurricane Katrina making its tragic landfall on August 28, 2005 and then-Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination for the presidency on the same day in 2008.
The star-studded 22-minute film is also full of familiar faces, including Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Regina King, David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, André Holland, Michael Ealy and Glynn Turman.
August 28: A Day in the Life of a People will debut on August 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on OWN.
