Array Releasing Acquires Dèbora Souza Silva’s Documentary ‘For Our Children’

Valerie Complex
·2 min read
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Array Releasing, the distribution arm of Ava DuVernay’s Peabody-winning narrative change collective, said Friday that it has acquired Débora Souza Silva’s documentary For Our Children. The deal is for U.S., Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand rights. It will make premiere on Netflix on May 10.

For Our Children unites the voices of resilience and solidarity in a poignant cinematic journey, chronicling the convergence of two mothers, Reverend Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, whose lives have been forever altered by the scourge of police brutality against young Black men. The doc features appearances by other Black mothers who have lost their children to state-sanctioned violence, as well as civil rights leaders and activists Benjamin Crump and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.

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To date the film has screened at various film festivals including the San Francisco International Film Festival, Toronto Black Film Festival, Freep Film Festival, Athena Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the Twin Cities Film Fest and more.

Director/producer/co-writer Débora Souza Silva is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work examines systemic racism and inequality and has been featured on PBS, BBC, Reveal News, KQED and Fusion. She received the Les Payne Founder’s Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and was selected for a New York Times Institute Fellowship.

She is also a recipient of the 2021 Creative Capital Award, a member of the 2020 Chicken & Egg(celerator) Lab and the 2019 Firelight Media Lab. Her work has also been funded by Sundance, Glassbreaker Films, the Investigative Reporting Program, the Tribeca Film Institute, Fork Films, Perspective Fund, Catapult Film Fund, The Center for Investigative Reporting, Berkeley Film Foundation, DocPich and California Humanities.

“Array is proud to work with filmmaker Débora Souza Silva to tell these important stories of Reverend Johnson and Angela Williams and their ability to find hope and light in a world too often defined by division and despair,” Array president Tilane Jones. “Through intimate storytelling and raw authenticity, For Our Children illuminates the unbreakable bonds of love and resilience that bind us all.”

For Our Children is produced by David Felix Sutcliffe and Adina Luo, with co-producer Loi Ameera Almeron, as well as associate producers Myah Overstreet, David Magdael and Vince Johnson. The acquisition was negotiated by Laverne Berry of The Law Office of Laverne Berry on behalf of the film, and Gordon Bobb of Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang, on behalf of ARRAY Releasing.


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