At Bedford Playhouse, Local Producer Spotlights Hidden History of Slavery in NY With Emmy-Winning Doc

By Elaine Clarke, Examiner Reporter Intern

When local freelance journalist and producer Larry Epstein began working on his documentary, The Hidden History of Slavery in New York, he never expected a year later for it to win an award at the 67th New York Emmy Awards.

“I was really confident for a while after we got the nomination. I felt that we told a really, really good story,” he explained. “I feel like a lot of very talented people were involved.”

But then on the award night itself, as Epstein — who lives in Beacon — watched his category go up, he became more nervous.

“I started seeing those names, and there were some people I recognized who we were running against — who are very well known,” he said. “And I started thinking, ‘Oh, we don’t have a shot.’”

However, when his name was called, Epstein was filled with thrill and emotion.

“Just tremendous gratitude that something that we spent so much time on, and I put so much passion into, was recognized by an Emmy,” he said. “We got the award back in October, and I’m still feeling gratitude.”

Last week, on Aug. 7, Epstein brought the 30-minute film to the Bedford Playhouse for its first-ever theatrical showing, followed by a lively audience Q&A. The event marked the latest stop in his growing effort to share the history of slavery in New York with local audiences — a story he says is often overlooked in classrooms and public memory, and one he hopes will spark conversation in communities across the region.

The documentary focuses on Rye High School senior Richard French IV as he explores the history of slavery in New York he was never taught in school. French had proposed the idea behind the documentary after learning about enslaved people in New York on a history tour. After being introduced to the idea by French’s father — Epstein’s former coworker — Epstein researched and wrote the film. He then decided to have the high schooler host it.

“I think it’s interesting that it’s told from a student’s perspective and he did a fantastic job of telling the story,” said Epstein, who has previously freelanced articles for The Examiner.

Ever since his big win, Epstein has been reaching out to museums, libraries and historical societies to share his work, such as the Beacon Historical Society, the Bridgeport Public Library and the Lincoln Depot Museum in Peekskill — which Epstein said at the time was his biggest crowd yet.

“The important thing is just awareness. I think that it’s important for people to know what happened,” he said.

At least week’s screening and Q&A in Bedford – which Epstein characterized as the most exciting venue yet for his film – moviegoers asked him a myriad of questions about how the film has landed with different audiences, what the host, French, is doing now (to which Epstein answered a freshman year abroad in Scotland) and his process to access the archived documents shown in the film.

“I can’t believe that we got that sort of access,” he said, and spoke to a specific instance in the film where French and an archivist examine the second constitution of New York state from 1821. “The original document is there. It is on the table.”

At the screening, an audience member asked Epstein if he was worried that federal interference with the Manhattan African Burial Ground National Monument might lead to historical censorship. Epstein, however, emphasized New Yorkers hardly have any awareness of the monument, let alone the federal government.

“[It] is a major, major historical and archeological site and most people haven’t heard of it,” Epstein said. “People are walking by all the time and not even noticing it.”

Epstein was a former executive producer at NBC News, and former senior-level producer for Neil Cavuto at the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network. But despite his long career in journalism, when Epstein first began researching the film in 2023, New York’s huge role in the slave trade was news to him.

“I saw that Wall Street had one of the largest slave markets [on] the…continent…and that New York City was one of the most active slave trading ports,” he said. “It’s a really, really difficult topic. People really don’t want to talk about it. People don’t want to think that the city that they love was a slave trading port.”

He was especially happy to watch how audiences process his film.

“I’ve been working for TV for 20 years, so I broadcast something and I very rarely see people watching it in real time,” he said. “It’s very gratifying to get their reaction, because I feel like the movie lands with the audiences.”

The film, Epstein pointed out, challenges people intellectually. It’s all very shocking to absorb, he also stressed, even after his own 20th watch.

“Each time I see it I still get sad and I sometimes even pick up things that I notice for the first time,” he explained.

He pulled the interview of Bryan Stevenson from the documentary as an example.

Stevenson is an American lawyer and civil rights activist, known for his best-selling book Just Mercy, which recounts his experiences defending Walter McMillian, a man unjustly sentenced to death. He also is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

“Some of the things he says are so beautiful and eloquent that every once in a while, I’ll catch something new and think about it in a whole different way,” Epstein said.

Epstein said the film eventually was submitted to the Emmy committee because of its timeliness. He explained that they believed the project would be worthy of a nomination because the committee would see it covered a topic that resonated with a lot of people.

“When we started working on the project, there were big discussions in the schools about the curriculum and critical race theory,” he explained. “There was a big debate as to whether this painful history should be told in detail, because it’s very painful for the students.”

In the film, Stevenson addresses the backlash against teaching critical race theory, arguing that discomfort is an important part of learning. He believes that confronting difficult truths about history is essential to building a freer and more just society

“I think education isn’t really education if we take out anything that makes us uncomfortable, if we take out anything that makes us ashamed. The most effective education actually explores those things,” he said. “It’s the only way we can get to a place where we can actually be that city shining on a hill.”

Epstein will be holding more events in October at the Norwalk Historical Society and the Mount Kisco and Mahopac public libraries, hoping to continue to create public consciousness of slavery in New York through his film. It is also available for streaming on Amazon, as well as free on YouTube.

French finished the documentary stressing the importance of raising awareness of New York’s ignored history of slavery.

“My home state engineered [slavery] — built its city on the backs of its oppressed,” he said. “It’s a chapter of history that deserves to be taught.”