Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard
Directed by David Grubin2021 1h 35m
Who owns the rights to the violence of the past - the victim or the perpetrator? Tamara Lanier is determined to force Harvard University to cede possession of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty, taken by force without his consent. The daguerreotypes were ordered in 1850 by a Harvard biologist to support his poisonous theory of the superiority of the white race. The images remain emblematic of America's failure to acknowledge the cruelty of slavery, the racist science that supported it, and the white supremacy that continues to infect our society today. This David vs. Goliath story focuses on Lanier, tracking her lawsuit against the country's richest, oldest, most prestigious university.
