Come Sunday night, director Steve McQueen’s critically praised rendering of the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Antebellum South, may win the Academy Award for best picture.
So why isn’t everyone talking about “12 Years a Slave” around the water cooler, on the street, over coffee?
It is arguably the most revered film in recent memory that so few have seen. Those who do watch it often leave theaters in a hush, finding it difficult to explain how they feel about what they’ve witnessed on the screen.
If anything, McQueen’s film has stopped more conversations than it’s started. And the silence is deafening.
