In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in the United States that resulted in the murder of local slave owners and their families, the eventual execution of 55 rebels and the retribution lynching of more than 200 innocent slaves. Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property examines how the story of Turner’s revolt has been interpreted throughout history and how it continues to raise new questions about the nature of terrorism and other forms of violent resistance to oppression. The film adopts an innovative structure by interspersing documentary footage and interviews with dramatizations of these different versions of Turner’s story. A unique collaboration between MacArthur Genius Award feature director Charles Burnett, acclaimed historian of slavery Kenneth S. Greenberg and Academy Award-nominated documentary producer Frank Christopher, Nat Turner is a compelling look at one of history’s most mysterious figures.

Tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself.

American film critic Elvis Mitchell’s kaleidoscopic documentary creates a definitive narrative of the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism—a work of painstaking scholarship that’s also thoroughly entertaining, an essential archival document and testament to a period of American film history unlikely to be repeated.