Link: Book of Negroes director had to get past the title

From Anthony D’Alessandro of Deadline:

Is ‘The Book of Negroes’ An Appropriate Title For A Miniseries?
When Clement Virgo first heard about Lawrence Hill’s novel The Book Of Negroes, it was really hard for the Canadian director to swallow the title. Ditto for his producing partner Damon D’Oliveira. “I had an aversion to a novel called Book Of Negroes,” said the director of the six-part BET-eOne miniseries which is making its premiere tonight at Mipcom in the Cannes grand auditorium and will debut on BET in February; the network’s first-ever long format series. Virgo was pushed by his local bookseller to read Hill’s novel about Aminata Diallo, the indomitable African women who is kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa, sold into slavery in South Carolina, then navigates her way through the American Revolution when she ultimately secures her freedom to England at the dawn of the 19th century. But even after buying the book, Virgo was put off by the title. He soon came around and says, “I couldn’t imagine the novel being called anything else.” Continue reading.

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