Free Angela raconte l’histoire d’une jeune professeure de philosophie, née en Alabama, issue d’une famille d’intellectuels afro-américains, politiquement engagée.
Durant sa jeunesse, Angela Davis est profondément marquée par son expérience du racisme, des humiliations de la ségrégation raciale et du climat de violence qui règne autour d’elle. Féministe, communiste, militante du mouvement des droits civiques aux États-Unis, proche du parti des Black Panthers, Angela Davis s’investit dans le comité de soutien aux Frères de Soledad, trois prisonniers noirs américains accusés d’avoir assassiné un gardien de prison en représailles au meurtre d’un de leur codétenu.

Accusée en 1970 d’avoir organisé une tentative d’évasion et une prise d’otage qui se soldera par la mort d’un juge californien et de 4 détenus, Angela devient la femme la plus recherchée des Etats-Unis. Arrêtée, emprisonnée, jugée, condamnée à mort, elle sera libérée faute de preuve et sous la pression des comités de soutien internationaux dont le slogan est FREE ANGELA !

Devenue un symbole de la lutte contre toutes les formes d’oppression : raciale, politique, sociale et sexuelle, Angela Davis incarne, dans les années 70, le « Power to People ». Avec sa coupe de cheveux « boule » et sa superbe silhouette elle lancera, malgré elle, la mode « afro », reprise à cette époque par des millions de jeunes gens.
Quarante ans plus tard, à l’occasion de l’anniversaire de l’acquittement d’Angela Davis, Shola Lynch, avec Free Angela, revient sur cette période cruciale de la deuxième partie du XXe siècle. Toujours engagée, militante abolitionniste, l’icône Angela continue le combat. Power to people !

Réalisatrice : Shola Lynch
Second long métrage documentaire

Pays : USA / France
Année : 2012
Langue : anglais
Durée : 1h41 minutes




Réalisatrice : Shola Lynch
Sénariste : Shola Lynch
Image des Reconstitutions : Bradford Young,
Image des interviews : Sandi Sissel (ASC)
Chef monteuse : Marion Monnier – Lewis Erskine
Montage son : Bridget O’Driscoll
Mixage : Jérôme Wiciak
Etalonnage : Thibaud Caquot
Musique : Vernon Reid
Productrices : Shola Lynch, Carine Ruszniewski, Carole Lambert, Sidra Smith
Documentaliste : Judy Aley
Traduction : Claire Gausse – Marine Héligon
Format de tournage : HD
Format de projection : Screen ratio DCP – 1.77
Son : Dolby Digital 5.1
Durée : 1 h 37
Pays de production : France – USA

Production :
De Films en Aiguille : Carole Lambert – Carine Ruszniewski (France)
Realside Productions : Shola Lynch (États-Unis)

Producteurs associés :
Overbrook – Will Smith (États-Unis) / Rock Nation – Jay Z (États-Unis)

Coproduction : Direct Cinéma

En Partenariat avec
Direct 8, La Région Ile-de-France, Canal +,
The Ford Foundation, Black Entertainment Television Networks, Tribeca All Access, Procirep – Angoa, New York State Council on the Arts, Paul Newman Foundation, The Independent Television Service, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program

Ventes Internationales : Elle Driver
Ventes U.S.A. : Elle Driver

Sortie salles (France) : le 3 avril 2013.
Sortie salles (USA) : le 5 avril 2013 – Detroit, NY, Oakland, LA, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta and Chicago – AMC Theaters

FREE ANGELA is a feature-length documentary about Angela Davis.
A film by Shola Lynch, in which Angela Davis, 68, speaks openly for the first time in forty years about the tumultuous events of her twenties.


The high stakes crime, political movement, and trial that catapults the 26 year-old newly appointed philosophy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles into a seventies revolutionary political icon. Nearly forty years later, and for the first time, Angela Davis speaks frankly about the actions that branded her as a terrorist and simultaneously spurred a worldwide political movement for her freedom.


In this essential new feature documentary, legendary radical activist Angela Davis speaks for the first time about her 1970s imprisonment as a terrorist and conspirator, which became a flashpoint in the black liberation struggle and turned her into a revolutionary icon.

Directed by Shola Lynch




Programmer’s Note (Toronto FilmFest 2012)

Few American lives encapsulate the tumult and triumph of the civil rights movement as much as that of author, educator and radical activist Angela Davis. Her wide range of admirers extends to include Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. A professor at UCLA, an open member of the Communist Party and an associate of the Black Panthers, Davis possessed an incendiary cocktail of attributes that made her the establishment’s worst nightmare: not only was she educated, fiercely intelligent and fearlessly outspoken, she was also a socialist, an African-American and a woman. It’s an understatement to say that not everyone in the U.S. was ready for Angela Davis – and some in fact did their utmost to put her behind bars forever. Free Angela & All Political Prisoners is the gripping story of how Davis became an international icon of social revolution and progressive politics.

Built around new interviews with Davis, the film recounts her Alabama upbringing, her studies in the U.S. and Europe, and the start of her academic career in the philosophy department at UCLA, where she quickly drew fire for her membership in the CP – which then-governor Ronald Reagan publicly labelled a « provocation. » (Reagan would later amend this, claiming that what really irked him was Davis’ « unprofessionalism. ») A campaign began to have Davis banned from teaching anywhere in the state. She began receiving death threats, which led her to purchase her first firearm.

But Davis’ problems had only just begun: in 1970, she was charged with conspiracy in kidnapping and murder following Jonathan Jackson’s dramatic daylight abduction of Judge Harold Haley from the Marin County courthouse, which ended with Jackson, Haley, and two others dead in a shootout with police. Chronicling Davis’ time in hiding, her eventual arrest and highly publicized trial via archival footage and her own words, this captivating documentary has all the fascination of a crime thriller and a courtroom drama, while touching on contentious issues around racial prejudice, gun control and freedom of speech.

The Festival is proud to present the world premiere of this fascinating and inspiring film.


Director: Shola Lynch
Countries: USA / France
Year: 2012
Language: English
Runtime: 101 minutes
Rating: PG

Producer: Shola Lynch, Carine Ruszniewski, Carole Lambert, Sidra Smith
Production Co.: Realside Productions, De Films En Aiguille
Principal Cast: Angela Davis

Screenplay: Shola Lynch
Cinematographer: Sandi Sissel, Bradford Young
Editor: Lewis Erskine, Marion Monnier
Music: Vernon Reid
Int. Sales Agent: Elle Driver
U.S. Sales Agent: Elle Driver


Tags: Female Director | Civil Rights | Politics | Documentary | Crime


In Theaters (USA): April 5, 2013 – Detroit, NY, Oakland, LA, Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta and Chicago – AMC Theaters



2012 | London International Film Festival
* Selected

2012 | Stockholm International Film Festival
* Selected

2012 | Toronto Filmfest, Canada
* World Premiere
* Gala Presentation
* Screening: Sunday September 9 / Roy Thomson Hall / 1:30 PM
* Screening: Monday September 10 / The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema / 3:00 PM
* Screening: Saturday September 15 / The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema / 12:00 PM
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/freeangelaallpolitic