— 02 / The Film

The story has always been told from the ship. Never from the village.

A live-action narrative film confronting the internal passage — the hidden road that made the Middle Passage possible.

"I believe there is a great psychic shadow over Africa, and it has much to do with our guilt and denial of our role in the slave trade. We, too, are blameworthy in what was essentially one of the most heinous crimes in human history."
— Kofi Awoonor  ·  Ghanaian writer, diplomat, UN representative

Every slave narrative ever put on screen begins at the point of capture, the auction block, or the ship. The Internal Passage goes further back — to the village court, the rigged oracle, the debt ledger, and the local broker who handed human beings to the next link in the chain.

This is not an indictment of Africa. It is the honest accounting that must come before healing can begin. The external slave trades were monstrous — but their success depended on internal passage systems that have never been fully put on screen.

The Internal Passage is a live-action narrative film — shot on location with real actors and real places. In post-production, AI tools enhance the epic scale of what could not be filmed traditionally: the forest routes, the coastal barracoons, the thousands who walked the road before the ship.

Prof. Tye Ukpong
Project Director
— Production

What we're making.

Format

Hybrid Narrative

Live-action drama shot on location in West Africa, with AI-enhanced post-production to achieve the epic visual scale the story demands — forest routes, barracoons, thousands on the road.

Runtime

30 – 40 Minutes

A short film built for festival distribution, broadcast licensing, and streaming — with the ambition and production value of a feature. Premiere target: late 2026.

Purpose

Truth. Reconciliation. Restitution.

This film is built to open the conversation that must precede healing — in Africa, in the diaspora, and across the communities still shaped by what the passage created.