Charlamagne Tha God–radio host and memoirist–is executive producing a new documentary about the politicain Bakari Sellers that is set to premier later this year at the New Orleans Film Festival. Sellers made his name, originally, as the youngest black elected official as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Since then he's become a figurehead/poster-boy for black and Democratic politicians in the South, who generally have a rough go of it, Bakari being no exception; he ran for the position of lieutenant governor of South Carolina four years ago, and lost.
That campaign will be the focus of the new documentary, called While I Breathe, I Hope, the release of which will coincide with the midterm elections this fall and likely hopes to influence them or at least push them towards a more nuanced discussion of race. Sellers is an ideal candidate for this portrayal as a young, black Democrat in a racially-divided, historically red state where he campaigned for the removal of the confederate flag from the state capitol building and protested the Charleston church massacre of 2015.
The film's trailer, which you can watch here, features a moving speech from Sellers who asks the people of South Carolina, in their voting, return to the states motto: while I breath, I hope.
