Release Date: In Limited Theaters Oct 13, 2023
Release Date: Digital Platforms Oct 20, 2023
Director: Raoul Peck
Writers: Raoul Peck, Lizzie Presser
Featuring: Billy Reels, Charles Lee Reels, Gertrude Reels, Licurtis Reels, John C. Barnett, Classie Curley, Melvin Davis, Kim Duhon, Anita Earls, Mamie Ellison, Nate Ellison, Roderick Ellison, James Hairston, Wayne Lawrence, Julus McCabe, Yvonne McCabe, Leland Pinder
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Language: English
Country: United States
Standing up for what is rightfully yours, will never be wrong.
SILVER DOLLAR ROAD, an infuriating story, from Oscar-nominated director, Raoul Peck, about the Reels family decades long fight against land developers and their attempts to steal their valuable waterfront land, in North Carolina, that had been purchased by Elijah Reels and in their family since reconstruction. The long fight has been spear headed by the family matriarch Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon.
It is so hard to believe that after it had been legally declared that the Reels where the rightful owner of the land, they are still subjected to a brutal decades long legal fight .
Mamie Reels Ellison took her great-grand father Elijah's advice to heart, when he said, "What ever you do, don't let the white have my land." And she had been steadfast in honoring his wishes.
It is tragic enough that they to spend tens of thousands of on attorney fees, but they had to deal with the incarceration of Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reel. They were kept in jail for 8-years for refusing to sign over their legal rights to land and promising not to return.
While watching the film, you can't help but think about all of the other African American and Native Americans, who have had their land illegally taken and wonder will they ever be made whole. You are reminded that land theft runs deep in the history of United States.
Silver Dollar Road is a good film. It will make you made about the injustice done to the Reels family, yet is well worth watching.
Release Date: In Limited Theaters Oct 13, 2023
Release Date: Prime Video Oct 20, 2023
Distributor: Amazon Studios
Production Co: Velvet Film
Director: Raoul Peck
Writers: Raoul Peck, Lizzie Presser
Featuring: Billy Reels, Charles Lee Reels, Gertrude Reels, Licurtis Reels, John C. Barnett, Classie Curley, Melvin Davis, Kim Duhon, Anita Earls, Mamie Ellison, Nate Ellison, Roderick Ellison, James Hairston, Wayne Lawrence, Julus McCabe, Yvonne McCabe, Leland Pinder
Producers: Rémi Grellety, Blair Foster, Hébert Peck, Raoul Peck
Executive Producers: Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Lizzie Presser, Stephen Engleberg, Almudena Toral, Robin Sparkman, Rob Williams
Cinematographers: Henry Adebonojo, Antonio Rossi
Film Editor: Alexandra Strauss
Original Music: Alexei Aigui
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
Language: English
Country: United States