The award-winning documentary “Descendant,” which spotlights the Africatown community founded by survivors of the slave ship Clotilda, is coming to the Carver Theatre in Birmingham.

The environmental organization Sierra Club Foundation will host a free screening of the film on Sunday, March 19. The afternoon will feature appetizers and refreshments along with live jazz music by trumpeter and Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame inductee Daniel Jose Carr. A panel discussion featuring a question and answer session with the cast of the documentary and direct descendants of the survivors of the Clotilda will follow the screening.

Events kick off a 1 p.m. with appetizers and live jazz. The film screening starts at 2 p.m., followed by the panel discussion at 4:00. Admission for the afternoon is free, but registration is required and available via Eventbrite.

Directed by Mobile native Margaret Brown and co-written by Brown and University of South Alabama folklorist Kern Jackson, “Descendant” tells the story of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to bring captive Africans to America more than 160 years ago. Congress outlawed using the international slave trade in the early 1800s, but slaveowner Timothy Meaher financed the Clotilda to smuggle slaves illegally into the United States to the Alabama coast in 1860. Freed after the Civil War, the Africans formed a self-reliant community called Africatown where they could maintain their language and customs

But “Descendant” goes beyond the history of Clotilda to tell the story of Africatown and the community of people working to preserve their history. The film spotlights those who will inherit the future of the community and how it shapes their identity.

“What does it mean, to grow up understanding you are a descendant of those who founded the community known as Africatown? What identity did the knowledge of that story give, to those who passed it on and preserved it amid the indifference and latent hostility of the surrounding culture? What power does it lend now, since the discovery of the ship’s ruins has provoked widespread interest?” wrote AL.com’s Lawrence Specker in a 2022 review of the film. “That’s what this film is about. The story of the ship is central, but this project is about people. It does as good a job of letting those people speak — about their struggle, their determination, their hopes and their fears — as could be hoped.”

[Read Lawrence Specker’s full review of ‘Descendant’ ]

“Descendant” had a star-studded premiere at Mobile’s Sanger Theatre in 2022 with Brown, producer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson; Africatown community representatives Joycelyn Davis, Joe Womack, Veda Tunstall and Emmett Lewis, as well as film co-writer Kern Jackson; and diver Kamau Sadik.

[After ‘Descendant,’ what’s next for Africatown?]

[‘Descendant’ screening a momentous occasion for Africatown supporters]

[‘Descendant:’ Those closest to film hoping for ‘big, hopeful, wonderful things]

Netflix began streaming the film days later on Oct. 21. The streaming company’s assets for “Descendant” include a guide to the documentary and the cast who lent their voices to the film.

[No Oscar nomination for ‘Descendant,’ but real-world impact continues]

Sunday’s film screening is part of a rollout of preview events leading up to the expected reopening of the Carver Theatre and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in the spring. After the return of Sidewalk Film Festival screenings and the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival last August, the Carver hosted two events in December: the premiere of the documentary “Shuttlesworth” and a performance by Curtis Lundy and the Umoja Ensemble.

Watch the official Netflix trailer for “DESCENDANT” below

Related:

[‘Spirits of the Passage:’ Mobile’s GulfQuest hosts powerful exhibition on slave trade]