CNN Sets May Airdate For ‘Dreamland: The Burning Of Black Wall Street’ From LeBron James’ SpringHill – Update

UPDATED with airdate: CNN said Tuesday that it will premiere the documentary Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, on Monday, May 31 at 9 PM ET on CNN and CNN en Español. The film will encore Saturday, June 5 at 9 p.m. ET; HBO Max has streaming rights to the film and will make it available at a later date.

Acquired last fall (see the story below) under the title Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, the doc celebrates the Black cultural renaissance that existed in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, OK, and investigates the 1921 Tulsa race riot massacre that left an indelible, though hidden stain on American history. It was directed produced by Salima Koroma and executive produced by LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, and Philip Byron for The SpringHill Company, and Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton for CNN Films.

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Fremantle recently acquired Dreamland for international distribution.

Here’s CNN’s latest promo for it:

PREVIOUSLY, October 26, 2020: CNN Films has come aboard Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, the documentary about the 1921 Tulsa race riot from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment. The project, announced earlier this summer, is now in production, the companies said Monday, with Salima Koroma directing and producing. The film is expected to be completed early next year, which will mark the horrific event’s 100th anniversary.

James, Carter, Jamal Henderson and Philip Byron are executive producing for SpringHill alongside Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton of CNN Films. With the deal, CNN will be the linear TV distributor for the feature doc in North America; HBO Max has acquired streaming rights.

The project, first revealed in June amid the nationwide protests for racial justice over the death of George Floyd, explores the history of Black Wall Street and the violent events of May and June 1921 in Tulsa, when mobs of white residents, spurred by an accusation of inappropriate behavior by a Black man against a white woman in an elevator, attacked and ultimately destroyed the 35-block Greenwood District — at that time a thriving community of African American bankers, lawyers and business owners that comprised the wealthiest Black community in the U.S. Hundreds were killed.

The production is a mix of archival media, contemporary interviews and first-hand accounts from letters and diary entries of the time, and will include footage of the search for physical evidence of the mass graves.

Dreamland is one of several projects centered on the Tulsa riot that include Dream Hampton and Cineflix Productions’ Black Wall Street miniseries and the docuseries Terror in Tulsa: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street from Stanley Nelson, Russell Westbrook and Blackfin.

Variety had this news first today.

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