Angela Bassett, Courtney B Vance to back docu-series 'One Thousand Years of Slavery'

LOS ANGELES: "Black Panther" star Angela Bassett and "Lovecraft Country" actor Courtney B Vance are set to produce a documentary series titled "One Thousand Years of Slavery".

The four-part docu-series, set up at Viacom CBS' Smithsonian Channel, will be helmed by BAFTA-winning British-Nigerian director David Olusoga.

It will shine a light on the stories of survival and devastation that span across the globe - from Africa to the Caribbean, London to Washington DC, and more.

According to Deadline, actor couple Bassett and Vance will executive produce the series via their Bassett Vance Productions.

Through preserved historical documentation and insight from experts, every story in the show unfolds to chronicle how slavery frames the present and continues to act as a distinct force on the future.

The series features interviews with public figures including Secretary Lonnie G Bunch III, Senator Cory Booker, and actor David Harewood.

Olusoga, who won the BAFTA for the 2015 documentary series "Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners", said slavery is a "really recent" phenomenon.

"It's painfully close to us, and it's no surprise it's still shaping our societies. Our aim is to break away from just seeing the slave trade as a phenomena that exists after the conquest and discovery of the New World, but to look back. It's to set what happened in the New World in context, that it came from somewhere," he added.

"One Thousand Years of Slavery" is produced by Uplands Television for Smithsonian Channel and Channel 5.