Will Smith will host a new Netflix documentary series, Amend: The Fight for America, that discusses what it means to be American. The show is executively produced by Smith and Larry Wilmore. The six-part series will launch February 17 to the streaming platform. A teaser featuring some of Hollywood’s brightest stars was released today to Youtube.
Amend: The Fight for America aims to explore the country’s evolving ideology of freedom and equality. When the United States was first colonized by the British, this idea of equality for all did not apply to everyone. The series shares stories of the brave Americans who fought to right the nation’s wrongs and enshrine the values we hold most dear into the Constitution — with liberty and justice for all.
The docuseries created by Robe Imbriana and Tom Yellin explore America’s Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which promised liberty and equal protection for all persons. The trailer previews an inside look on the six part series, which features a talented roster of visionaries including Samuel L. Jackson, Yara Shahidi, Diane Lane, Pedro Pascal and Mahershala Ali. They are showcased reciting speeches and writings from the Fourteenth Amendment’s impassioned supporters and adversaries like Frederick Douglass, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Andrew Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Amend: The Fight for America also sheds a bit of insight from an array of contemporary thought leaders and experts in the field.
American living has progressed in a plethora of ways since the Fourteenth Amendment was written into the U.S. Constitution, and yet there are still a number of injustices Black and Brown people face each day in this country. Executive producer, Smith speaks to Deadline about the importance of this series.
“We are living in unprecedented days as a society, as a country, and as a human family,” Smith told Deadline. “I believe that the cultivation of personal and historical understanding is the imperative spark igniting the flames of desperately needed compassion and healing. As Americans, we endeavor to form a more perfect union that truly establishes justice and equality for all. I believe a deeper understanding of the 14th Amendment is a critical jumping off point. Our hope with this series is to illuminate the beauty that is the promise of America and to share a message of connection and shared humanity so that we will be able to better understand and celebrate our different experiences as Americans and promote progress toward the true equality promised to all persons under the 14th amendment.”