Assata Shakur, aka Joanne Chesimard, the firebrand revolutionary Black Panther, in 1977, was falsely convicted and sentenced to life in a widely publicized case involving a 1973 shootout on the N.J. Turnpike, which resulted in the deaths of a Panther and a New Jersey State Trooper.
In 2006, Justin, a NY filmmaker, and Asha, a student journalist, cross paths at a Harlem street festival, and their passions soon ignite. They discover by chance that both are intensely caught up in the controversial story of Assata.
While serving the 3rd year of her life sentence, in 1979, Assata effected a daring escape from a maximum security prison in New Jersey. After a number of years in hiding, in 1984, she emerged in Cuba, where she lives to this day.
Her life as a fugitive political exile, a fighter for freedom and social justice, has attracted a worldwide following.
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