PRODUCTION NOTES

"If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones: African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage."

— Tom Feelings, artist/author

The Middle Passage captures a seminal moment at the very beginning of African-American history, taking a novel and haunting look at the transatlantic slave trade, a phenomenon during which millions of Africans died as they were deported to the Americas. Taking place almost entirely on board a ship bound for the New World, the film breathes illuminating emotional detail into a horrifying, dehumanizing experience that remains an essential part of the cultural heritage of African-Americans.

"The Middle Passage" refers to one leg of a triangular trade system practiced in the 400-odd years leading up to the American Civil War. Ships embarked from European ports, stopped in Africa to gather captives, and set out for the New World to deliver their human cargo, ultimately returning to the port of origin. The "Middle Passage" was the leg of the triangle that brought captives from West Africa to North America, South America and the Caribbean. The average voyage took 5-12 weeks, with hundreds of people packed in the bowels of a ship designed to carry maybe half that number. Countless men, women and children perished during the voyage, discarded overboard by their European captors without so much as a prayer.

Structured as a "poetic rumination," the film's story is told entirely through the voice-over of an anonymous dead African, whose spirit haunts the ocean route. Directed by Martinique native Guy Deslauriers, HBO's version of The Middle Passage features English narration adapted from the original French by novelist/screenwriter Walter Mosley (Always Outnumbered, Devil in a Blue Dress). It is narrated by Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator, Amistad, East of Harlem), who was born in the West African nation of Benin (he moved to Paris at 13). Shelby Stone (HBO Films' Boycott, the upcoming Skipped Parts) is Executive Producer for HBO on both The Middle Passage and Middle Passage.

The original version of The Middle Passage screened to critical acclaim at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival as well as at Sundance 2001. As the Sundance catalogue explains, "Deslaurier's lushly stylized visualization and Patrick Chamoiseau and Claude Chonville's intelligent script provoke a searing realization of the enormity of beauty and humanity lost to the world on this abominable expedition. The viewer cannot help but emerge from the theatre transformed and with new eyes."