Twelve Years a Slave: the astonishing book that inspired my film
▻http://www.theguardian.com/culture/shortcuts/2013/dec/02/twelve-years-a-slave-book-inspired-film-solomon-northup
Finally, I had the idea of a free man kidnapped into bondage, but that’s all I had. I was attracted to a story that had a main character any viewer could identify with, a free man who is captured and held against his will. For months I was trying to build a story around this beginning but not having great success until my partner Bianca Stigter, a historian, suggested that I take a look at true accounts of slavery. Within days of beginning our research, Bianca had unearthed Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup.
“I think I’ve got it,” she said. If ever there was an understatement. The book blew both our minds: the epic range, the details, the adventure, the horror, and the humanity. It read like a film script, ready to be shot. I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as important as Anne Frank’s diary, only published nearly a hundred years before.
#histoire #esclavage #États-Unis
►http://www.entremonde.net/client/gfx/photos/produit/16RUPTURE2_47.jpg
