Writer/director Shola Lynch follows up her 2004 documentary Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed with this film centered on the struggle of educator and activist Angela Davis, an outspoken UCLA professor whose affiliation with the Communist Party and the Black Panthers landed her on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list while challenging our perceptions of political freedom in America. From her early years as a student in the U.S. and abroad to her highly publicized arrest and trial following the brazen hostage-taking and murder of Marin County judge Harold Haley in California, Lynch’s film leaves no stone unturned as it explores every remarkable detail of Davis’ life, and allows her to tell her own stories through a series of intimate interviews.
Shola Lynch is an actress, filmmaker, curator and producer. Shola holds a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University and honed her filmmaking skills as a visual researcher and associate producer for Ken Burns and Florentine Films. Her work on the two-part “Frank Lloyd Wright” documentary and 10-part “Jazz” series inspired her to pursue the art of storytelling. She was recently named the curator for the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Her groundbreaking documentaries—2004’s Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed, on the history-making presidential campaign of black congresswoman Shirley Chisholm; and 2013’s Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, the story of iconic black activist Angela Davis—have established her as both a talented filmmaker and an artist with an eye on history.
