VENICE, ITALY – AUGUST 31: Octavia Spencer walks the red carpet ahead of the ‘The Shape Of Water’ screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on August 31, 2017 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)
Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer is set to executive produce a new film based on the story of the first woman to liberate herself from slavery.
According to Variety, Spencer’s new upcoming independent film “Mumbet” is about Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman who was the first woman that filed and won a freedom suit. Mumbet won the suit in Massachusetts in the newly ratified state constitution that said, “All men are created free and equal.”
The movie will be based on the book, “A Free Woman on God’s Earth” by Jana Laiz and Ann-Elizabeth Barnes. The movie will be directed by Alethea Root and production company Kim Waltrip Wonderstar Productions and Root of Truth 13 Productions.
“This is a woman who risked her life to speak truth to injustice. The power of truth is paramount and the time is ripe for the world to be inspired and moved by Mumbet’s story,” Root told Variety.
Filming for the movie will take place in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The acting for the film has not been announced as yet.
