“Emancipation” producer Joey McFarland has been criticized for bringing a photograph of the former slave known as “Whipped Peter,” to the premiere.
Will Smith plays Peter, a character inspired by the man who sat for the photograph — whose name was actually Gordon, according to America’s Black Holocaust Museum. The Apple TV+ film is directed by Antoine Fuqua from a script by William N. Collage.
On social media, critics questioned whether bringing the Civil War-era artifact to a movie premiere was a wise move.
April Reign, who created the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, noted her “disgust” of McFarland after learning that the producer has “branded his newly acquired photos of enslaved people as the #McFarlandCollection, [and] started posting right after ‘Emancipation’ wrapped filming.”
