Emancipation

Emancipation is a 2022 American dramatic historical action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and co-produced by and starring Will Smith as an enslaved man in Louisiana in the 1860s who escapes his plantation. The film, written by William N. Collage, is loosely based on the real-life story of Peter and Gordon, two formerly enslaved Black men, and the photographs of Peter's bare back, heavily scourged from an overseer's whippings, that were published worldwide in 1863, giving the abolitionist movement proof of the cruelty of enslavement. The film also stars Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa.

Producer Joey McFarland began researching the story of Gordon in 2018, and hired Collage to write the script. The film was officially announced in June 2020, with Fuqua to direct and Smith to star. Filming took place in Louisiana between July and August 2021, with Apple paying $130 million to acquire the rights to the film, outbidding several other studios.

Emancipation had its first screening in Washington, D.C. on October 1, 2022, and was released in select cinemas on December 2, 2022, before a streaming release on December 9, by Apple TV+. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Smith's performance, but criticized the screenplay and its handling of real-life events.