Emancipation

Emancipation is a 2022 historical action thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith as a runaway slave in 1860s Louisiana. Written by William N. Collage and co-produced by Smith, the film follows its hero toward Baton Rouge as he survives the swamps while pursued by slave catchers and their dogs. It is loosely based on the real-life story of Peter and/or Gordon, formerly enslaved men whose 1863 photographs — including one of a back heavily scourged by an overseer’s whippings — gave the abolitionist movement proof of slavery’s cruelty. Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa co-star in the film, which is rendered in a desaturated palette reminiscent of black-and-white cinema and was released in select cinemas on December 2, 2022, after a first screening in Washington, D.C.

SCANable provided ground and aerial 3D scanning for the production, combining LiDAR and aerial photogrammetry to generate point-cloud data used for camera tracking and visual effects work.