The Gray House: “If we do not remember our own History, we are doomed to repeat it”
The true story of a clandestine female network among the Confederates. A large mural on the Civil War, produced by Morgan Freeman and with Mary-Louise Parker. They explain to us why this is the kind of essential historical series in today’s America. Watch on Prime Video.
“It’s a true story, buried in collective memory, but it all really happened.”
Morgan Freeman is one of the producers of The Gray House, a large historical fresco that tells the story of the Civil War from the South. A miniseries inspired by real events, which highlights the determining role – and long remained in the shadows – of a spy network set up by women, at the very heart of Confederate power. At the center of the story, we discover Elizabeth Van Lew, an abolitionist from Virginia operating as close as possible to the circles of southern power, who will gradually transform this underground railroad network into a fearsomely effective organization…
Director Roland Joffé, nominated for an Oscar for The Tear (1984) and Palme d’Or at Cannes for Mission (1986), directs all eight episodes of The Gray House, which arrives on Prime Video this week, three years after it was filmed and two years after being presented at the 63rd Monte-Carlo Television Festival. On this occasion, Première was able to meet Morgan Freeman. With his producer’s hat on, the star of Évadés and Invictus confided to us:
“This is the kind of story we want to tell with my company Revelations Entertainment. It’s important to pass this on to the new generation and there’s something very instructive about it. If you don’t remember the tragedies of your own history, you’re doomed to repeat them. As someone who grew up in a southern state (Tennessee), we learned about history as seen by southerners at school. We didn’t mention stories like that of Elizabeth Van Lew.”
It must be said that this young woman, granddaughter of a mayor of Philadelphia, is seen as a traitor by the Confederates, and still today by certain southerners. But she was indeed a heroine of her time, as Mary-Louise Parker, who plays her mother in the series, reminds us: “Elizabeth played a crucial role at the head of this clandestine network, helping dozens of slaves to flee the southern states to regain their freedom.”
Epic saga about the war between the North and the South, The Gray House also aims to find a certain echo in today’s America, where the civil war seems to smolder a little more every day: “It’s always useful to tell these stories of sacrifice, of people who are ready to commit to others… Especially in these delicate times in America, where there is less and less humanity. The world is not very beautiful at the moment and it is important to show these people who have existed”, insists Parker, who praises the feminine prism of the series, more empathetic.
His on-screen comrade, Ben Vereen, also admits that when faced with this type of series, “one asks the question: would I have been as brave? Would I have been as courageous during the Civil War, to the point of taking risks to free slaves? I don’t know. But I know that we must continue to keep this conversation alive with younger generations.” The actor, revealed in the major American series on slavery Roots in 1977, urges: “The day we stop talking about it, society risks going backwards. There is a real generational gap which is beginning to be created, a generational forgetting even, and it is up to the elders to fill it by telling these stories.”
The Gray House, 8 episodes, watch on Prime Video.
