Join us for this exclusive film screening of Haile Gerima’s "WILMINGTON 10 - USA 10,000"

part of Weeksville Heritage Center’s Weeksville Watchnight series

In 1972, The Wilmington 10 - 9 Black men and one white woman social worker - were unjustly incarcerated - with combined sentences of 282 years - for a crime in racially and politically volatile Wilmington, NC, that they didn't commit.

So obvious was this misjustice, The Wilmington 10 became a cause célèbre, as journalists and lawyers exposed criminal wrongdoing in the State’s case; religious leaders, politicians, and activists demanded their release and exoneration; and the Soviet Union brandished their photos as a symbol of American hypocrisy and racism.

This rarely seen or shown 1979 documentary, restored in 2021 by the Academy Film Archive, uses their case, and American history - including the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 - to show how their imprisonment affected their families and extended community. It is groundbreaking in its approach and execution.

This screening is also in tribute to the recently deceased Assata Shakur, interviewed in the film just before her escape from prison.

Post-screening panel on social and restorative justice and thoughts on the film with:

•  Vincent M. Southerland, civil rights attorney and Faculty Director for New York University’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law

• Melissa Lyde, founder of microcinema Alfreda's Cinema

• moderated by writer and arts & culture critic Jessica Lynne

For a thorough look back at The Wilmington 10, read this article from OUR STATE.com and then join us for this special screening.

In partnership with Alfreda’s Cinema and Weeksville Heritage Center

Funding has been made possible by The Puffin Foundation

4K digital restoration courtesy the Academy Film Archive