Assata Shakur’s life and legacy are being delivered to the display by way of a brand new documentary and scripted sequence from filmmakers Giselle and Stephen Bailey, simply weeks after the activist and former Black Liberation Army member died in exile in Cuba at age 78.

The sibling duo, recognized for HBO’s Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television, acquired full authorization from Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, to inform the story of some of the polarizing figures in American historical past.

The Baileys’ work consists of Netflix’s Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop and HBO’s The Legend of the Underground.

Civil rights icon Angela Davis has signed on as govt producer for the tasks underneath the Baileys’ Indigo Films banner.

“Assata’s story is important to all Americans as it reveals the powers that divide us and our capacity to heal,” the Baileys mentioned in a press release to Variety.

The documentary has already secured backing from Sundance, Firelight Media, the Concordia Fellowship and Chicken & Egg Films. Netflix’s inventive fairness fund helped present a key analysis and improvement grant.

Civil rights legal professional Lennox Hinds, who represented Assata Shakur for many years, granted the filmmakers unique entry to authorized archives and private supplies.

Born JoAnne Chesimard, Shakur was convicted in 1977 for the killing of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster throughout a site visitors cease in 1973. She escaped prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she was granted asylum and lived until her death on September 25 in Havana.

Shakur’s affect on Hip-Hop tradition stretches far past her political activism. Her godson Tupac Shakur turned some of the iconic voices in rap.

Chuck D famously shouted her out in Public Enemy’s 1987 monitor “Rebel Without A Pause” with the road “supporter of Chesimard!” and Common paid tribute in his 2000 monitor “A Song for Assata,” which drew criticism when he was invited to carry out on the White House in 2011.

“Hip-Hop culture inherently speaks truth to power and tries to act against power,” Rosa Clemente, a longtime grassroots organizer and Hip-Hop activist, told The Grio.com. “Assata Shakur, through her life and her freedom, not only speaks against power, she escaped from the most powerful military empire in the world.”

In a 2000 interview, Assata Shakur mirrored on Hip-Hop’s potential to boost consciousness, saying, “Hip-Hop can be a very powerful weapon to help expand young people’s political and social consciousness. But just as with any weapon, if you don’t know how to use it, if you don’t know where to point it, or what you’re using it for, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot or killing your sisters or brothers.”

Shakur remained a controversial determine all through her life, with the FBI inserting her on its Most Wanted Terrorist checklist in 2013. Despite the political firestorm surrounding her, she turned a logo of resistance and self-determination for generations of activists and artists.

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