Netflix picks up Clotilda documentary after film wins prize at Sundance Film Festival

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) -- Netflix acquired the distribution rights to a documentary about the Clotilda after the film won a prize Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by Mobile native Margaret Brown, “Descendant” follows the story of the Clotilda and the Africatown community. The schooner is believed to be the last known slave ship to arrive in the U.S. and its wreckage was discovered in 2019.

Last week, “Descendant” won the Special Jury Award: Creative Vision at Sundance. It was picked up for distribution by Netflix and Higher Ground, the production company owned by Barack and Michelle Obama.

Netflix will release the documentary on its streaming platform later this year.

Brown co-wrote the film with Dr. Kern Jackson, the director of African American Studies at the University of South Alabama. Brown’s 2008 documentary “The Order of Myths” profiled the racially segregated history of Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebrations.