“A powerful story that needed to be told…
one of the most memorable films of the year.”
— Mike Sargent, WBAI-FM (New York)
“Jewell Wilson Bridges’ star performance is a fearless piece of work.”
– Joe Leydon, Variety
“Inger Tudor is a captivating actor… injecting the film
with gravitas and dignity.”
– William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“A moving tribute to an indelible slice of history.”
– Suzanne Marques, CBS Los Angeles
BEFORE CITIZEN KANE AND WAR OF THE WORLDS,
A YOUNG ORSON WELLES AND AN ALL-BLACK ACTING TROUPE CONTROVERSIALLY BROUGHT A REIMAGINED SHAKESPEARE TO HARLEM IN THIS POWERFUL PERIOD DRAMA BASED ON TRUE EVENTS
VOODOO MACBETH
Street Date: January 10, 2023
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital: $24.95/$19.95/$12.95
Bonus Features Includes Audio Commentary with Actors Jewell Wilson Bridges, Inger Tudor and Assorted Crew and Actual 1936
Footage of the Original Play
SYNOPSIS
Based on the true story of young Orson Welles – 20-years-old and just starting out — and Broadway star Rose McClendon managing a group of committed artists as they set out to create a landmark event in theater history, VOODOO MACBETH unspools the incredible tale of the Negro Theatre Unit’s revolutionary 1936 production of “Macbeth”. Following a triumphant run at more than 20 film festivals and a 2022 major market theatrical release, VOODOO MACBETH will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD and all digital/transactional outlets. It will also be available for digital rental, including on cable and satellite VOD.
With FDR’s New Deal providing funding for the Federal Theatre Project, legendary theater actress and leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance Rose McClendon, with a young John Houseman, who helmed the Harlem Negro Theater Unit together, decided to bring “Macbeth” to the community at the Lafayette Theater — with an all-Black cast. For this groundbreaking production, they’d turn to an incredibly gifted but untested Welles who was just beginning his career in New York. With Welles-ian panache, he reimagined Shakespeare’s Scottish classic, moving the setting to Haiti and exchanging witchcraft for Caribbean voodoo. The production was highly controversial, provoking heated protests from Harlemites who considered it exploitative, and by politicians who thought it subversive. However, the play debuted to packed audiences and was wildly successful, playing for 10 weeks and then touring across America.
In a 1982 interview, Welles said, “By all odds, my great success in my life was that play, because the opening night there were five blocks in which all traffic was stopped. You couldn’t get near the theatre in Harlem. Everybody who was anybody in the black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors. And that was magical.”
VOODOO MACBETH marks the first theatrical release from USC Originals in association with Warner Bros., and features a powerful ensemble cast, headed by Inger Tudor (“Goliath,” “On Time”) as Rose McClendon and Jewell Wilson Bridges (the national tours of “My Fair Lady” and “La Cage Aux Folles”) in his feature film debut as Orson Welles. The film also featured 10 directors, eight writers and three producers. Overseen by veteran producer and USC professor John Watson, (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Backdraft” and “The Outer Limits”), began in a writers’ room where screenwriters collaborated on each facet of the writing process. Then the film’s directors who each embody different perspectives, styles, and tastes came together to form a common vision, delivering a powerful period drama called “entertaining” and “a story well worth retelling” (Will Coviello, The Gambit).
BONUS FEATURES
Audio Commentary with actors Jewell Wilson Bridges and Inger Tudor, producers Miles Alva and Jason Phillips, writer Erica Sutherlin, and director Zoë Salnave
Actual 1936 footage of the original play, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Type: DVD/BluRay/Digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, etc.)
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 108 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2:1
Audio: 5.1 Surround
ABOUT LIGHTYEAR ENTERTAINMENT
Lightyear Entertainment is a distribution company enjoying its 35th Anniversary. In 2016, Lightyear theatrically released Tanna, which was Academy Award nominated for Best Foreign Film. Since then Lightyear theatrically released The Etruscan Smile, which starred Brian Cox (HBO’s Succession), Maze, Goldstone, and a-ha: The Movie.
ABOUT USC ORIGINALS
USC Originals represents a new approach to creating feature films and other creative commercial content under the auspices of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Projects under the USC Originals banner engage teams of recent alumni and advanced students in working collaboratively on each part of their development and creation, with multiple writers, directors and producers working on the same film. The group-creators approach maximizes opportunities for diverse crews of both above and below the line talent. USC Originals are Executive Produced by veteran producer and professor John Watson.
