Free State of Jones

[projekktor id=’24503′]

Free State of Jones is a Civil War drama based on the true story of Newton Knight. Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit) directed the film which stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and Keri Russell.

Free State of Jones tells the extraordinary story of a little known episode in American history during which Newt Knight, a fearless Mississippi farmer, led an unlikely band of poor white farmers and runaway slaves in an historic armed rebellion against the Confederacy during the height of the Civil War. Juxtaposing and complementing the narrative in intermittent flash-forwards is the 1948 trial of The State of Mississippi versus Davis Knight, the key defendant in a ground breaking miscegenation trial, and the great-grandson of Newt Knight and his common law wife and former slave, Rachel.

“When I first learned of the story of Newt Knight,” Ross recalls, “it was amazing to me that this unique hero had been kind of lost to history. He is known in certain places in the South, and he’s certainly known in Mississippi, but he’s not as widely known as he probably should be, considering he led a rebellion against the Confederacy and in many ways was 100 years ahead of his time.”

Free State of Jones is rated 14A.