Entertainment
‘Liberation’ Production Shifted Away from Georgia in Opposition to Voting Limitations
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The recent voting restrictions implemented in Georgia, impacting both local and national elections, have sparked strong criticism from various quarters. These fresh, stringent regulations, alongside other constraints, shorten the timeframe for absentee voting, demand ID from absentee voters, greatly limit ballot drop boxes, and surprisingly criminalize offering food and water to individuals in line to cast their votes. These laws were put into effect following unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud by former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election.
Several prominent entities, spanning from Major League Baseball to Coca-Cola, have denounced the regulations, with MLB notably relocating the All-Star game from Atlanta as a form of protest. Numerous major media corporations have also followed suit, either voluntarily or at the behest of actors who have pledged to avoid participating in any projects filmed in Georgia. The most recent entertainment endeavor to withdraw from Georgia is the shooting of director Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith’s upcoming movie Liberation. The narrative centers on the real-life account of an escaped slave portrayed by Smith, fleeing from Louisiana. Initially set to commence in June, filming has now been redirected to another location following the enactment of Georgia’s voting laws, as decided by Fuqua.
Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith will relocate the production of their high-budget, runaway slave drama “Liberation” out of Georgia in disagreement with the state’s contentious new voting restrictions. https://t.co/n85hl0lXXf
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 12, 2021
“Currently, the Nation is confronting its history and striving to eradicate institutional racism remnants in the pursuit of genuine racial equality,” expressed Fuqua and Smith in a collective declaration. “We cannot in good faith financially support a government that enforces regressive voting laws aimed at limiting voter accessibility. The recent voting laws in Georgia echo past obstructions enacted post-Reconstruction to disenfranchise numerous Americans from voting. Therefore, we feel compelled to relocate our film production operations from Georgia to a different state,” they lamented.
