Silver Dollar Road

The Reels family live in North Carolina. The land they hold sits on the waterfront. They bought it one generation after slavery ended. It has been in the family for more than a hundred years. The first owner died without leaving a will. Ownership was split among a large number of heirs. That arrangement creates a weak point in law. Developers come in at exactly that point. The family has been under that pressure for decades. Two members of the family spent years in jail for defying a court order. The documentary tells the story through the family’s own voices. It is based on a 2019 ProPublica report. The film shows how the legal system gets worked. Mamie Reels Ellison and Melvin Davis appear in the hundred and one minute documentary, a French and American co-production Raoul Peck finished in 2023.