Assata aka Joanne Chesimard

Assata Shakur, the firebrand revolutionary Black Panther, was convicted and sentenced to life in a widely publicized case involving a 1973 shootout on the NJ Turnpike, which resulted in the deaths of a Panther leader and a NJ 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 in protective exile..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.