CINCINNATI, OH (April 6, 2016) — The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission announced the third film in the Freedom Film Series today, Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers—a thought-provoking new documentary from executive producer A. Troy Thomas. The premiere screening of the documentary is next Monday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Harriet Tubman Theater and is free and open to the public. The Freedom Film Series is sponsored by Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission, presenting films highlighting unique stories that must be told,” says Dr. Michael Battle, executive vice president and provost of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Liberty & Slavery is a compelling, must-see documentary that will help our visitors and community better connect with our country’s contradictory and complicated founding.”

Liberty & Slavery reveals the story of America’s Founding Fathers as young men who were yearning for a nation of individual liberty and unprecedented independence. Thomas Jefferson expressed this desire for freedom from England in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 by writing: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

In composing this document, Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues penned some of the most famous words ever written. The phrase: "all men are created equal" is one that every American child learns in school. Its message gives birth to the universal concepts of justice, equality and righteousness. But, the origins of America were seeded with a cruel paradox because many of the liberty-loving, Southern Founders were also slave owners including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison and Patrick Henry.

The documentary features exclusive interviews with Richard Cooper, director of museum experiences, Carl Westmoreland, senior historian and preservationist, and Northern Kentucky University professor Dr. Eric Jackson. A discussion and Q&A with Dr. Jackson, executive producer A. Troy Thomas and director of photography and editor Chris Marshall, will conclude the program.

The premiere screening of Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers is next Monday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Harriet Tubman Theater and is free and open to the public. The Freedom Film Series is sponsored by Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. For more information and to RSVP, visit freedomcenter.org.