17 Jun DEADLINE: Freestyle Digital Media Acquires North American Rights to Documentary ‘The Deadliest Disease in America’ & Historical Musical-Drama ‘Freedom of North Carolina’ – Film Briefs
EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American rights to writer-director Crystal R. Emery’s documentary The Deadliest Disease in America, and to director James Jones, Jr.’s historical musical-drama, Freedom of North Carolina. The digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group plans to release both titles across VOD platforms on July 12.
The Deadliest Disease in America traces the history of racism in American healthcare, beginning with the brutal medical experimentation that enslaved people were forced to undergo. As this story unfolds over our nation’s history, the very same inequalities and biases continue to plague our healthcare system, creating disparities in the quality of care that Black, Brown, and indigenous people receive. Commentary from medical and public health experts is interwoven with personal stories of patients who have been victimized by healthcare inequities, including the filmmaker’s own experiences as a quadriplegic African American woman. Emery and Stacey L Holman served as the film’s producers.
The latter film set in colonial North Carolina chronicles the daily struggles of the 14-year-old slave, Sarah Jones (Vinetrice Reynolds), who dreams of her family one day living outside the Hoperville plantation in Washington, North Carolina. There’s only one elder who has the answer to what Sarah needs, sharing it with her just before she dies. Jones and Carmichael Griffin wrote the pic, which also stars Yanna Buttons, Sarabeth Marie Franz, Kenny Keen, Terryn Pinder and Lisa Rae Ring. Jones produced, with Carmichael Marquise Johnson co-producing.
Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal to acquire The Deadliest Disease in America with Glen Reynolds of Circus Road Films, negotiating the deal for Freedom of North Carolina directly with Jones of Bearhug Productions. Watch the trailers for both films below.