5412 Years a Slave (2013)

In adapting Solomon Northup’s searing memoir of enslavement, John Ridley was challenged to find and develop “the moments in those twelve years that stand in the starkest relief,” he told Filmmaker Magazine. “You don’t want a film that is all pain and suffering, but at the same time, you don’t want a film that turns its head away from those difficult aspects of the storytelling.” No matter how brutal the story was, he used Northup’s faith to guide him.