‘The idea for the film came from watching Ken Burn’s The Civil War on PBS. In one of the segments, Burns details the South’s plan, had they won. They were to build a “tropical empire” and expand further south into Mexico and South America. Evidence of this actual plan is the city of “Americana” in Brazil that was founded by former Confederates.
‘Often, when I would submit scripts to Hollywood that in some way dealt with slavery or the issue of race in a historical context, they would tell me that slavery is not “commercial” and that no one is interested in this side of American life. My former agent would cite Amistad and Beloved, both financial failures (in Hollywood terms), as examples that proved slavery is a subject that is a downer for blacks and a guilt trip for whites. Yet, Gone with the Wind is always placed at the top of the “greatest films of all time” lists. I would agree with syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, who wrote, “Gone with the Wind is a romance set in Auschwitz.” Is the film popular because all the slaves in film are happy and impervious? We all know Ken Burns, a man brilliant in his knowledge of how lucrative the Civil War industry is, and his documentary mini-series. “Cold Mountain” and many other films have offered a certain take on the War. So often, these productions have an antiseptic quality that simply doesn’t explore real issues.
‘I started to think how I could approach the subject in a new way. How could you make slavery and the reality of the Confederacy fresh in the minds of an audience? That is where the idea germinated.
‘I researched the subject, making choices that grounded the film in a reality not based in speculative history as much as in a series of “sign posts” that reflects our actual history. And because the choices come from America’s real history, we are not making light of the cruelty of slavery. The humor comes from the absurdity of our real lives, not from jokes.
‘In many ways, the South did win The Civil War. Maybe not on the battlefield, but they won the peace. They won the fight for their way of life. The North changed, not the South. One of the best examples is the city in which I live, Lawrence, Kansas, famously founded by abolitionists. Following the North’s “victory,” the city was segregated. Kansas University, where I am an Assistant Professor, was segregated. The Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court decision that desegregated schools in the United States was in Kansas, not Mississippi. Maybe the history of the “C.S.A.” would not be all that different from the one we have known – some differences, perhaps, but not a complete counter history.
I hope that audiences find the film a provocative and entertaining look at slavery, race and the American way of life.
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