November 5, 2025
A documentary and scripted project on the late political activist Assata Shakur are in development, with Angela Davis serving as executive producer.
Following the recent passing of Assata Shakur, filmmakers Giselle and Stephen Bailey have announced they are developing a documentary and scripted project on the renowned political activist.
The sister-and-brother filmmaking duo behind HBO’s Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television will produce and co-direct the documentary under their banner, Indigo Films, with authorization from Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, Variety reports. Civil rights attorney Lennox Hinds, who represented Shakur, has granted the filmmakers exclusive access, with political activist, professor, and author Angela Davis joining as executive producer.
“Assata’s story is important to all Americans as it reveals the powers that divide us and our capacity to heal,” Giselle and Stephen Bailey said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Shakur’s passing on Sept. 25 in Havana, Cuba, where she had lived in political asylum since escaping prison in 1979. Born Joanne Chesimard and a member of the Black Liberation Army, Shakur was convicted in 1977 for the 1973 death of Trooper Werner Foerster during a New Jersey Turnpike traffic stop that left two dead and Shakur wounded.
Sentenced to life, she escaped prison in 1979 with help from BLA members and had been a fugitive, later appearing on the FBI’s top 10 most-wanted terrorists list in 2013. Supporters argue her conviction was based on weak evidence, noting no gunpowder residue on her hands, lack of fingerprints on the murder weapon, and her injuries sustained while allegedly surrendering, along with acquittals or dismissals of other charges against her.
In the 2014 edition of Assata: An Autobiography, Angela Davis wrote a foreword praising Shakur as a “compassionate human being committed to justice” and warned that the FBI aimed “to frighten people involved in struggles today.”
The year prior, Davis called Shakur “innocent” and said her case highlighted the police brutality and racism she and her peers faced at the time.
“Forty years seems as if it were a long time ago; however, at the beginning of the 21st century, we’re still dealing with the very same issues – police violence, healthcare, education, people in prison, and so forth,” Davis said. “People really don’t know the details and are not aware of the extent to which [Shakur] was targeted by the FBI and the COINTEL programme.”
Now, with both a documentary and a scripted project in development, Assata Shakur’s story and legacy are set to reach a new generation of truth seekers.
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