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Unfolding Stories
Fuqua juggles Will Smith comeback and slavery politics in 'Emancipation'
Directing Emancipation, a brutal film about slavery set in Louisiana, was always going to be a challenge for Antoine Fuqua -- and then his star Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.
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(L-R) Apple co-head of programming Jamie Erlicht, US actor Will Smith, US director Antoine Fuqua and Apple co-head of programming Zack Van Amburg pose upon arrival for the European premiere of 'Emancipation' at the Vue West End in London on December 2, 2022. (AFP/Isabel Infantes)
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irecting Emancipation, a brutal and harrowing film about slavery set deep in the alligator-infested Louisiana swamps, was always going to be a challenge for Antoine Fuqua -- and then his star Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Despite reports that Apple could delay its release until the raging controversy around Smith's actions subsides, the movie hits theaters this weekend and streams globally next Friday, raising fears that audiences and Oscars voters could boycott it.
"Absolutely, I have big concerns about that," Fuqua told AFP.
But "Will's been a good guy, in front of all of us, for 37 years," he said of Smith, who rose to fame in the 1990s.
"I hope we have more compassion in our hearts, to at least go see the work he did -- because he did amazing work in the movie. They all did."
Emancipation is inspired by the story of a Black man who defied enormous odds to escape slavery during the United States' Civil War.
"Whipped Peter" became a global symbol of the horrors of slavery, after photographs of his bare back -- utterly mutilated by lashings he received on a cotton plantation -- circulated around the world.
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