Power Our WorldMedia Accelerator & Impact Network
Power Our World
Period | Drama | Action–Adventure | War (pre Civil War, intertwined black–white stories)
ALTON is a pre Civil War action-adventure story, now timely in the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd and others. This film would probably be shot in Georgia, Louisiana or another southern state that can replicate St. Louis in the 1830s. ALTON uniquely weaves black and white stories together with heroes from both races and a powerful message for today.
We must make media actionablein the wake of global outcry following the George Floyd murder. ALTON is a prequel to Lincoln, exposing the roots of today’s urban warfare. The ALTON screenplay was a 2020 semi-finalist in Black Screenplays and Stories: An African American Screenwriting Competition.
Diversity, Opportunity, Inclusion. This screenplay integrates black and white stories and so has unique power to engage both races. There are heroes of both races. Ideally ALTON should be produced by a mixed race production team.
Production Now.The screenwriter has a strong personal connection to this story because the screenplay is based on the research of her father, John Glanville Gill, who moved to ALTON to extend the legacy of Elijah Parish Lovejoy and served as Minister of the First Unitarian Church in Alton, Illinois. He led a coalition of ministers in the struggle for integration in Alton, which prompted Ku Klux Klan burnings that made national headlines, including Time Magazine. He wrote the first biography of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, the basis for this screenplay, which is dedicated to his memory. He always dreamed this story could have major impact if made into a movie. But Americans were not ready to hear this story. Even five years ago, after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson near Alton, still we were not ready.
The murder of George Floyd stunned the world, as the murder of Elijah Parish Lovejoy once stunned a nation. We are finally ready for this story.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy – Alton Observer Newspaper Editor who transforms from a moderate into an Abolitionist (lead white male)
William Wells Brown – who leads a slave escape and becomes a renowned writer (lead black male)
Frank McIntosh – one of the most shocking true stories of the slave era (lead black male)
Lovejoy’s murder was a major precursor for the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
Though forgotten today, newspapers across the country reported Elijah Parish Lovejoy’s death.
John Quincy Adams wrote, “This struggle belongs in the annals of human liberty. This death will stun a drunken people into sobriety. We haven’t fully learned the bloodthirstiness of slave power.”
Wendell Phillips, well-known orator, lawyer and abolitionist, wrote, “The gun fired at Lovejoy scattered a world of dreams…. How prudently most men creep into nameless graves…while now and then, one or two forget themselves into immortality.”
Owen Lovejoy, Elijah’s younger brother, was by his side on the night he was murdered. Owen Lovejoy was inspired by this atrocity to join Abraham Lincoln to form the Republican party and to launch Lincoln’s campaign for the Presidency in Alton. Owen Lovejoy became a leader of the Underground Railroad. The famous Lincoln-Douglas debate was held in Alton.
In a two minute summary below Zann Gill describes three screenplays in the POW film series that all address great challenges today: