12 Years a Slave: 2013

As of this past weekend, I had three films left to watch to complete my goal of watching all Academy Award Best Picture winners. And now I'm down to two.

When 12 Years a Slave came out in 2013, my life consisted of being a teacher and a mom, and the small amount of time left after that was not spent following movies (or even television for that matter). At most I'd watch a rerun of some sitcom while folding laundry with my husband. I had heard about 12 Years a Slave from people at work, but only in the years after the film came out. I knew it would be difficult to watch, especially as a white person who knows that slavery built this country and is the foundation of the systemic racism that privileges me today. But for those reasons, I knew I needed to watch it.

Intellectually, I knew I would see pure hatred in this film from the white characters, but nothing could have prepared for me how vicious they were. Slavery is something my country hasn't dealt with. I learned about it in school, but it's such a watered down telling with an emphasis on "It's over now!" when really, it's not because of how slavery impacts our society today through systemic racism. So to see what slavery was like and living the world that I live in today, this film was particularly challenging to watch.

Adding to that was some amazing acting from Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Solomon Northrup, the free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery where he survives for 12 years until he is freed. Ejiofor captures the pain and suffering so well that I wanted to cry multiple times seeing his anguish over his loss of his family and his freedom. His persistence, though, is remarkable. And knowing this is a true story made his acting all the more powerful in thinking about this really happened. Solomon was real, and he lived to tell his story. Knowing that also built the suspense. I kept thinking that at any moment, Solomon would be beaten or caught when he attempts to find freedom.

12 Years a Slave is a tough but essential film to watch. This is one of those times where I'm glad I'm doing this project because I don't know if I would have watched 12 Years a Slave if I wasn't watching all the Best Picture winners. Now that I've watched, I'm really glad that I did.