Emancipation (2022)

Emancipation is a 2022 American historical action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by William N. Collage, and co-produced by Will Smith. Smith stars as a runaway slave headed for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the 1860s, after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in secessionist Confederate states, surviving the swamps while being chased by slave catchers and their dogs. The film co-stars Ben Foster as a ruthless slave hunter and Charmaine Bingwa as an enslaved wife and mother.

The film is loosely based on the life of a self-emancipated slave, known as either Gordon or "Whipped Peter". That story was made famous by the photograph of a man's bare back heavily scourged from an overseer's whippings, which was published worldwide as a magazine illustration in 1863 and gave the abolitionist movement proof of the cruelty of slavery. Producer Joey McFarland began researching that story 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 was in Louisiana between July and August 2021, with Apple paying US$130 million to acquire the rights to the film, outbidding several other studios.

It was screened in Washington, D.C., on October 1, 2022, and released in select cinemas on December 2, 2022, then streamed on December 9 on 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.