2012 Documentary
USA/France
1h 24min
Original language: English, French
When Melvin and Jean McNair hijacked a plane from Detroit to Algeria in 1972 to join Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers, they called it an act of political resistance to racism and the War in Vietnam. The hijacking was also an act of desperation committed by two people in their early twenties who saw no other way to escape what they felt was the constant state of racial oppression in America.
Forty years after the hijacking, Melvin and Jean are model citizens in France. If they return to the U.S., they could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Forty years after the hijacking, Melvin and Jean are still coming to terms with their crime and its lifelong consequences.
| Directed by | Maia Wechsler |