A 19th century published American author, having escaped bondage, finds himself in fear of his life and leaves home embarking on a transatlantic voyage to an island that alters and transforms his life forever.
Frederick Douglass, a fugitive slave, voyages 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean seeking asylum. Douglass visits Ireland for the first time in August 1845.
When Douglass steps on Ireland's fossilized colonial Munster plantation in Youghal, Co. Cork, an historical journey begins. Architect of Empire Sir Walter Raleigh sells vast tracts of land to the wealthiest subject of the British crown, the infamous, colonial developer Richard Boyle. Boyle's son, the Father of Chemistry and co-founder of The Royal Society, Robert Boyle author of 'Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)' connects seventeenth and eighteenth century science, commerce, colonialism, and slavery. Taking science and evolution from founder of The X Club, Charles Darwin’s Bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley, and his grandson, first director of UNESCO Julian Huxley brings a pulsating story of slavery, colonization, science and resistance at it unfolds in the face of oppression.
The Fables of Æsop: A Man and a Lion travel together through the forest. Soon they begin to quarrel, both boasting of their respective superiority to each other in strength, prowess and mind. As they were disputing, they reach a statue carved in stone of Heracles in the act of tearing the jaws of the Nemean Lion, which represents “a Lion strangled by a Man.” The traveler pointed to it and said: “See there! How strong we are, and how we prevail over even the king of beasts.” The Lion replied: “a Man made that statue. It would have been quite a different scene had a Lion made it, you would see the Man placed under the paw of the Lion.”
One story is good, till another is told.
It all depends on the point of view, and who tells the story.
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Frederick Douglass's early life in America to his transatlantic voyage to Ireland in 1845.
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. Born into slavery in Maryland, US, he escapes and became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive anti-slavery writings.
As a young boy, growing up on a plantation, Douglass’s childhood is one of legal forced labour, brutality and slavery. Douglass learns to read and write; he is different from the other young slaves.
During the period known as the Irish Great Hunger, Douglass, aged 27, still a slave, would go on the run in the US and travel by a route known as the ‘Underground Railroad’ through Canada and onward to the United Kingdom. Douglass’ planned four day visit to Ireland led to a four month ‘transformative’ visit where he met Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's great ‘Liberator’, known for his activism for Irish rights and Catholic emancipation.
From Dublin, Douglass travels down through Wexford, Waterford and Youghal before spending almost a month in Cork.
Frederick Douglass, one of the most recognized African American abolition figures in history, voyages to Ireland discovering that the ideology of white supremacy does not exist on the island among the native Irish “I saw no-one that seemed to be shocked or disturbed by my dark presence. No one seemed to feel himself contaminated by contact with me.”
Douglass’ observes the abject poverty in Ireland remaining resolute to his abolition cause “The Irish man is poor, but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is not a slave. He is still the master of his body.”
‘I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life,’ wrote Douglass as he prepared to leave Ireland in early 1846. His time in the country was truly transformative, with, for example, the influence of O’Connell widely credited with helping turn Douglass from a ‘single-issue’ anti-slavery campaigner to a broader human rights activist. The experience in Ireland also gave him the confidence to step away from the white abolitionist grandees once he returned to America in 1847, forging his own path and becoming in essence his own movement.
A two-arc feature documentary entering through the lens of a runaway African American slave turned abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
The Old World of monarchs, conquest, massacres, land confiscation and colonial settlement that develops into a science and colonial structural weapon.
The second interrelating dramatic arc of extends from the Act of Supremacy (1534) stretching through Eurocentric discrimination to the UNESCO declaration of known facts about human race (1950). The Oath of Supremacy requiring, those in public or church office and universities, a swearing of allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor. Douglass’ encountering Daniel O’Connell during his first visit to Ireland discovers O’Connell refused to take the Oath of Supremacy “One part of this oath I know to be false; and another I believe to be untrue."
The broader historical arc follows characters Sir Walter Raleigh (massacres, colonization), Richard Boyle (plantation, land confiscation), Robert Boyle (natural knowledge, science), Thomas Henry Huxley (racism) to Julian Huxley (Eugenics, Declaration on Race).
Taking the story from the 1534 Act of Supremacy to the 1950 UNESCO Declaration on Race provides a global perspective of colonization and natural knowledge structures that play a significant role in human identification and classification. In line with previous work from UNESCO to dispel harmful myths of 'a superior human race' The Man and the Lion feature documentary is a tool of resistance and education for all children, women and men of goodwill engaged in the good fight for human sisterhood and brotherhood against discrimination and hatred.
Writer / Producer Aidan Whelan owns and runs Wildflower Pictures, an award-winning Irish production company which was established in 2015. Wildflower Pictures develops, produces and markets factual, scripted TV Series and independent Motion Films. On the current Wildflower Pictures slate is an Academy Award Winning Screenplay Motion Film, and TV Series in development with US partners.
Inside I’m Racing (2017) is a multi-award winning Irish production themed on an autistic boy with a passion for motor-sport.
Writer / Director Liam McGrath owns and runs Scratch Films, a multi-award-winning company that was established in 1994, making factual, scripted comedy and fiction.
He is a graduate of Coláiste Dhúlaigh College of Further Education and The National Film School of Ireland. His film school graduation production in 1993 was the multi award winning film Boys for Rent. It told the story of Dublin boy prostitutes and established McGrath as a filmmaker of merit. McGrath established Scratch Films in 1994 and soon after directed the award-winning feature documentary Southpaw which received its international premier at the Sundance Film Festival before going on to a theatrical release in the USA, Britain and Ireland.
Since then, McGrath has produced and directed numerous award-winning documentaries and comedy programmes with many festival successes and was awarded The Irish Film And Television Academy’s ‘Best Director’ accolade in 2015. To date McGrath has over a 100 hours of broadcast productions to his credit.
A variety of collaborative projects culminating to commemorate Frederick Douglass’s journey and visit to Ireland in the 19th century. #DouglassWeek showcased over 60 projects with highlights, events and initiatives across several strands. #DouglassWeek was developed by Dr. Caroline Schroeter and hosted at University College Cork.
Wildflower Pictures commissioned a song for #DouglassWeek. Below are some images from the recording session. Song to be uploaded soon.
The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. By the mid-20th century, Black Americans had had more than enough of prejudice and violence against them.
