THE BEST OF ENEMIES Starring Taraji P. Henson: Durham Special Screening March 19

Durham, NC – STXfilms and The Best of Enemies Premiere Committee are pleased to announce THE BEST OF ENEMIES Durham Special Screening at The Carolina Theatre on March 19. Starring Academy Award® nominee Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) and Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), the timely, inspiring civil rights drama spotlights an unexpected friendship that led to school desegregation in Durham in 1971. The Durham Special Screening at The Carolina Theatre will take place on March 19 at 7:00 p.m., with tickets and limited VIP tickets on sale Friday, March 1 at 10:00 a.m. There also will be a screening of the film and panel discussion at Duke University on March 20. The film will debut in theaters nationwide on April 5.

THE BEST OF ENEMIES debuts in theaters nationwide on April 5, bringing national attention to Durham’s civil rights history during Durham’s 150^th anniversary year. Incorporated in 1869, Durham has been home to one of the most prominent African American entrepreneurial enclaves, early sit-ins and activists, as well as a present-day City Council committed to the ideals of shared prosperity.

“THE BEST OF ENEMIES represents an organizing tradition that has kept the promise of multi-ethnic democracy alive here in Durham. Ann Atwater embodied that tradition and spent her whole life building the surprising friendships that make it possible,” said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, co-chair of The Best of Enemies Premiere Committee and director of the School for Conversion. “She was my spiritual mother in the freedom movement, and I’m so glad folks are going to get to know her powerful witness through this film.”

“”The lessons of compromise and reconciliation brought forth by the Atwater-Ellis friendship are compelling. Engrained and implicit, challenges and inequities still persist. We still have so much to learn from Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis’ story.” – Dr. Benjamin Reese Jr.

Based on a true story, THE BEST OF ENEMIES centers on the extraordinary relationship between Ann Atwater (Henson), a fearless and outspoken civil rights activist who faced off against C.P. Ellis (Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader, to blaze the way for school desegregation. Through an incredible series of events and against all odds, these two people – with very different views and backgrounds – formed a friendship that ultimately led to large scale social change. Directed, written and produced by Robin Bissell, previously a producer of The Hunger Games and Seabiscuit, the book-to-film adaptation is inspired by the true events chronicled in “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South” by Osha Gray Davidson.

“The lessons of compromise and reconciliation brought forth by the Atwater-Ellis friendship are compelling,” said Dr. Benjamin Reese Jr., co-chair of The Best of Enemies Premiere Committee and vice president for institutional equity at Duke University. “Engrained and implicit, challenges and inequities still persist. We still have so much to learn from Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis’ story.”

Tickets to the Durham Special Screening at The Carolina Theatre will be $15 with a limited number of VIP tickets available at $100. VIP tickets include a wine reception with Bissell and Davidson, as well as actors and those portrayed in the film potentially present; a signed copy of the book, ‘The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South;’ and premium reserved seating. Net proceeds will benefit the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, an organization dedicated to ending systematic racism and the injustices of poverty and inequality.

Tickets to THE BEST OF ENEMIES Durham Special Screening at The Carolina Theatre on March 19 are available at:

• Online at CarolinaTheatre.org
• The Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall Box Office at 309 W. Morgan Street, Durham, NC, 27701
• Ticketmaster.com 

Tickets to the screening at Duke University on March 20 are also available to the public. There will be a book signing with Davidson prior to the screening at 4:30 p.m. After the film, Dr. Reese will moderate a panel that will include Bissell; Mary Martin, a lifelong friend of Atwater; and Bill Riddick, manager of the charrette portrayed in the biopic.

Examples of community activations surrounding THE BEST OF ENEMIES Durham Special Screening include:

• The School for Conversion has already produced a study guide about the story for faith communities to engage. It is available as a download along with other resources at the Ann Atwater Freedom Library’s website: https://www.schoolforconversion.org/ann-atwater-freedom-library/
• Durham Public Schools will host a series of events to introduce students to the story. A screening of the biopic will take place earlier in the day at Carolina Theatre for DPS students.
• Bull City 150 organizers will host a public conversation on public education in April

Durham 150 has collaborated with the Best of Enemies Premiere Committee with the generous support of The Forest at Duke, sponsor of the VIP reception.

“The story of Ann Atwater’s fortitude and C.P. Ellis’ reversal is impactful and timely for national and local audiences,” said Shelly Green, co-chair of the Durham 150 Convening Committee, president and CEO of Discover Durham and member of The Best of Enemies Premiere Committee. “This 150^th anniversary year, as we honor the changemakers who have shaped our history, the Atwater-Ellis friendship and its legacy of diversity and inclusion is central.”

About the Best of Enemies Premiere Committee:

The Best of Enemies Premiere Committee was established to plan and execute an advance screening of the film, THE BEST OF ENEMIES, and to organize other events that would educate residents and youth about the racial and economic injustices of the past and how to continue building a path to multi-ethnic democracy in Durham, North Carolina.  Committee members include:

Co-chairs:   Dr. Benjamin Reese, Office for Institutional Equity, Duke University and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Director, School for Conversion, Author and Speaker. Members: William V. “Bill” Bell, former Mayor, City of Durham and UDI Community Development Corporation; Representative MaryAnn Black, North Carolina House of Representatives, and Duke Health; Shelly Green, Discover Durham and Durham 150 Sesquicentennial Convening Committee; Wesley Hogan, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; Robert Korstad, Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy; Dietrich Morrison-Danner, Durham Public Schools; Charmaine Royal, Center on Genomics, Race, Identity & Difference, Duke University; Chanel Sidbury, Durham Public Schools; and Timothy B. Tyson, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University