AFROPOP CELEBRATES EARTH DAY WITH FREEDOM HILL

AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange ends season 16 with a spotlight on a historic town fighting to survive environmental pressures  

Freedom Hill premieres Monday, April 22 on WORLD

NEW YORK — AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, the acclaimed series from Black Public Media (BPM) and WORLD, closes out its 16th season on April 22 — Earth Day — with a documentary film exploring the urgent effects of climate change on one North Carolina community. Produced and directed by filmmaker Resita Cox, Freedom Hill debuts on AfroPoP on Monday, April 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Central) on WORLD and streams on the WORLD and Black Public Media YouTube channels.

In Freedom Hill, Cox — an award-winning, North Carolina-based filmmaker — transports audiences to Princeville, North Carolina, a town that has the distinction of being the oldest town in the United States chartered by Black people. Formerly enslaved Africans settled the area — which is set along the state’s Tar River — and initially called it Freedom Hill. Established in a low-lying area of the state that was known to be prone to flooding, Princeville now battles frequent “100-year” floods that threaten to wash the town away.

Cox grew up an hour away from Princeville but didn’t learn of the town’s historical significance until sent as a reporter for WCTI-TV 12 in New Bern, North Carolina to cover the flooding.

Through milestone events, everyday life in the town and the work of Marquetta Dickens — a Princeville native who has returned to her hometown and taken on the mantle of saving it — the documentary explores the history of Princeville and its uncertain future. In the face of environmental injustice that leaves many of their calls for change unanswered, the people of Princeville provide an intimate look at a community on the knife’s edge of climate change.     

Freedom Hill is a co-presentation of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange and WORLD’s Local, USA, a series that profiles diverse people and communities throughout the United States.

“For generations, Black people have been on the receiving end of environmental racism,” said AfroPoP series director/producer Denise A. Greene. “Climate change is intensifying this situation, jeopardizing our health, our property and our very lives. Resita’s film brilliantly uplifts the daily struggles facing our people, ensuring that our voices are heard and the plight of our people is centered in the conversation on climate.”

Three other films are presented in season 16 of AfroPoP, which showcases stories and lives from across the African diaspora. Commuted, by Nailah Jefferson, is a documentary exploring a woman’s efforts to rebuild her life after having her triple life prison sentence commuted by President Obama. Two narrative feature films from Kenya were also highlighted this season: Supa Modo by Likarion Wainaina, a magical tale of a village that helps a terminally ill young girl achieve her dream of becoming a superhero; and Mbithi Masya’s Kati Kati, an award-winning, supernatural film following a woman with amnesia on an exploration of life and death.

The films of AfroPoP season 16 can be streamed online on the WORLD YouTube Channel, the Black Public Media YouTube Channel and on the PBS App. Viewers can also check their local listings for broadcast re-airings on their local WORLD and PBS stations.  

For more information about AfroPoP, visithttps://worldchannel.org/show/afropop/ orhttps://blackpublicmedia.org/afropop/.