Eugene Bullard Was One of the Great American Heroes of the 20Th Century

A music-driven feature film about African American music and freedom developed with Seal and Jeymes Samuel Eugene Bullard was one of the great American heroes of the 20th century. A black American who as a nine-year-old ran away from the attempted lynching of his father, Bullard fought in both world wars, learned to fly and became the first black American fighter pilot, a champion boxer, jazz drummer, Paris club owner, one of the most decorated soldiers of the First World War and recipient of the Légion d’Honneur – France’s highest honour. But Bullard was a man who faced racial prejudice all his life and who remained virtually unknown in America, the country of his birth. He returned to America in the 1940s after 20 years in Europe but found little had changed since his youth. Whilst Bullard had been abroad, his elder brother had been lynched by a white mob and despite Bullard’s fame and status in France as a decorated war hero he found it difficult to find work. He ended his working life as a lift attendant at the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. Bullard’s story is emblematic of the forgotten ‘army’ of black American soldiers – men of fighting units such as the 369th Infantry Regiment, the ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ – who fought for freedom in Europe in the First World War and, remaining in France, created a cultural music-driven revolution in Paris in the decades following the end of the Great War. Inspired by the music of Sidney Bechet, Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith, Josephine Baker and King Oliver – the greatest jazz musicians and performers of the early 20th century – the film is being developed by the major recording artist SEAL and musician/filmmaker JEYMES SAMUEL. SEAL’s album ‘Standards’ was one of the best-selling albums of 2017. JEYMES SAMUEL has written and produced music for several artists, as well as written and directed a number of films; most recently he’s written and directed the short film LEGACY for Jay-Z’s 4:44 album. He was also Music Consultant on Baz Luhrmann’s remake of the film THE GREAT GATSBY, where he collaborated with Jay-Z on the project and brought together several critically acclaimed artists to create the soundtrack. SUGGESTED ACTORS FOR EUGENE BULLARD SUGGESTED MUSICAL TALENT Seal Jeymes Samuel John Legend Rihanna Diana Krall Mahershala Ali Michael B Jordan Donald Glover Chadwick Boseman John Boyega SUGGESTED ACTORS FOR ADA ‘BRICKTOP’ SMITH Max Raabe SZA CeeLo Green Jennifer Hudson Childish Gambino Jennifer Hudson Queen Latifah Octavia Spencer Janelle Monáe Lana Del Rey Shabaka Hutchings Erykah Badu Jill Scott SUGGESTED ACTORS FOR JOSEPHINE BAKER Angie Stone Jon Batiste Jamie Cullum David Foster Melody Gardot Rihanna Janelle Monáe Taraji P Henson Madeleine Peyroux Gregory Porter Charlotte Gainsbourg Robert Glasper José James A BLACK REVOLUTION – PARIS IN THE 1920s Paris in the 1920s is often portrayed as the focus of a white, intellectual revolution – Hemingway, Picasso, Buñuel, Dalí – but the reality is that it was African American culture, given freedom to express itself in Paris in the decade immediately following the horrors of the First World War, that drove this revolution. A revolution in art, poetry, philosophy but most of all in music. It is here that Bullard and others, though still subject to deeply rooted racism, experienced a level of personal, political and artistic freedom unknown in their home country. SIX MOMENTS OF FREEDOM is a music-driven film that claims back this intellectual and cultural revolution for the black musicians that inspired it. The film has a strong central narrative. The hero with a dream, fighting for and realising his dream against impossible odds only for it to be taken away from him before he finally finds wisdom. However, Six Moments of Freedom is not a straight catalogue of the extraordinary exploits of its hero fighting against racial prejudice. Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia but his father was a French speaker from Martinique. As a boy Bullard was inspired by the stories his father told of a country across the ocean – France – where all men were free but whose principles of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, symbolised by America’s Statue of Liberty, meant little in the deep south of America in the early 20th century. STOWAWAY TO FREEDOM A young man, Bullard joins a line of stevedores loading a German Cargo ship in New York Harbor. He sneaks away from the line and stows away, covering himself with empty grain sacks – we see him lying scared on a pile of sacks in the hold with the sun shining through the open hatchway. The grill on the hatchway is drawn shut, imprisoning Pitted one-on-one in the ring against one of Bullard in its shadow. his fellow boxers, and chief tormentors, he is Bullard manages to open a small grimy alone, totally self-reliant and free. porthole and gets a clear view of the Statue of FLYING SOLO – WAR HERO IN FRANCE Liberty as his ship steams past Liberty Island Bullard goes to box in Paris just as war is heading for Europe and ‘freedom’. He is declared. He signs up to fight for France discovered after the boat has put to sea and is in 1914. He becomes one of France’s interviewed by the angry Captain. The Captain most decorated soldiers and a well-known is intrigued by his wish to get to France and war hero. He is badly injured at Verdun. though very sceptical of his idealism, agrees Recovering in his hospital bed he sees a plane The film is constructed around an interview SIX MOMENTS OF FREEDOM connects these to set him down at first landfall in Europe. with Bullard in his small apartment in six key moments of ultimate freedom. Fleeting landing and taking off with trainees for the Harlem, New York, conducted by a young moments when he was able to break the FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE IN THE RING – newly formed French Army Air Service. He is black reporter from a music magazine. The social and racial chains that bound him and BOXING CHAMPION visited by some old friends whom he tells of reporter has a reel-to-reel recorder and experience unalloyed personal freedom. Bullard reaches Europe but instead of France his new ambition to be a pilot. They scoff at is researching a piece on Bullard and the On-screen, these moments explode in a riot he is set down in Glasgow in the middle of him and a rich friend of theirs bets him $2000 music scene in Paris in the 1920s. Bullard of colour, action and music, contrasting with winter. Bullard sees an advert for a boxing that he will never be a pilot. As soon as he is has an old record player and a pile of great the claustrophobia of the interview in his gym – he joins and starts training. He is able, he requests a transfer to the Lafayette early jazz recordings. But it is 1960 and the small dark New York apartment. treated well by the gym owner but faces Flying Corps, the squadron of expatriats flying background to their meeting is the unfolding regular casual racism from the white boxers for France, and becomes a pilot. story of the ‘Greensboro sit-in’. Four African ESCAPING THE LYNCH MOB already training there. But he trains hard and Flying solo for the first time as his biplane American college students politely asked High overhead shot of a nine-year-old black wins his first fight. soars above the French countryside, he for service at a lunch bar but were refused. boy running through the fields near his home remembers the freewheeling crows he Asked to leave, they stayed in their seats, in Georgia. He is running away from the saw as a boy and experiences a moment sparking youth-led protests throughout attempted lynching of his father. of true freedom. the South. Finally, he flops down breathless and Bullard and his interviewer hear news exhausted and looks up to the sky where reports of the sit-in on his radio and Bullard he sees a flock of crows freewheeling claims that as a black man in a white man’s against a clear blue sky. world he has never really been free and has only experienced six moments of true freedom in his entire life. A few of his musical army friends arrive of the congregation are his black jazz and to wish him well in his new venture and boxing friends, on the other side of church gradually start replacing the players until the are white French aristocrats. Everyone band is swinging. The club becomes hugely gets together when the music starts at successful and a magnet for the artistic and the reception. cultural revolutionaries in Paris in the 1920s. Bullard’s Paris club is famous throughout Bullard finally gets the $2000 dollars he won Europe and attracts all nationalities. He has in the bet with his friends and buys his own a large German clientele. As Bullard speaks club – L’Escadrille – with the legendary Ada German, he is put under pressure by the ‘Bricktop’ Smith. French Government to spy on his clients as the clouds of the Second World War gather He feels a totally free man when he receives over Europe. the keys to the club and throws open the shutters on the dusty building as the Paris When the Nazis finally invade France, Bullard light floods into the offices above the club. signs up to the French army again and is wounded in the defence of Orléans.

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