Blood Done Sign My Name intertwines 1970 problems with 2010 problems

2010 is the year post racial America officially begins. Obama has served a full year in the white house, with no assassination attempts to date, and blacks and Hispanics have more opportunities than ever before. Although a society where race no longer matters is the ideal, Blood Done Sign My Name, takes audiences back to a time when race meant everything.

The movie, which is set in 1970 North Carolina, tells the story of the murder of Henry Murrow a young black Vietnam vet, who was murdered by three white men, all of whom were acquitted and the resulting violence. Blood Done Sign My Name, based on the 2004 namesake novel written by Timothy Tyson, who was a child when these events occurred effortlessly blends the stories of white supremacy and black struggle in post civil rights America.
Nate Parker, who plays Benjamin Chavis, the 22 year school teacher who becomes the voice of the movement, is well known for acting in other historical films such as The Great Debaters and The Secret Life of Bees. What attracted Parker to this role, were the lessons of leadership and uplifting a community with many despairing statistics in the early 1970’s that still apply in 2010.

“I want audiences to realize that leadership is nothing but a need. That if you see a need in your community, that you need to be able to sacrifice and step into that need,” says Parker.