Directed by Tony Buba and produced by Marcus Rediker, the 56-minute documentary explores the life of the militant and, until recently, largely overlooked eighteenth-century abolitionist Benjamin Lay.

Who was Benjamin Lay?

Benjamin Lay was a radical abolitionist, originally from Essex. His uncompromising book, All Slave-Keepers who keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, was published in 1737. Lay also championed a host of causes that resonate with people today and which he believed were connected: animal rights, opposition to the death penalty, vegetarianism, and gender equality.

Lay employed dramatic non-violent direct action in pursuing justice. Covering slave-owners in fake blood, for example, or temporarily kidnapping their children to show how it felt to have your family ripped apart by the slave trade. He made all his own clothes and grew all his own food in order to avoid being implicated in any way in slavery and its products.

But Lay was also distinctive as someone who, like his abolitionist wife Sarah, experienced dwarfism. He’s been regularly ignored by historians of abolitionism and even dismissed by one, as “a mentally deranged . . . little hunchback”.

A fearless icon

Marcus Rediker’s biography The Fearless Benjamin Lay was published by Verso 2017. Since then, Lay has become an unlikely cultural icon for some. He is the subject of a successful play, children’s book and graphic novel—translated into Korean and Spanish, amongst other languages. He’s even a minor hit on TikTok, especially among young people with dwarfism.

The documentary is about Lay and also Mark Povinelli, a famous US actor and President of Little People USA, who seeks to understand Lay in order to portray him in the play, The Return of Benjamin Lay.

A CenSAMM event

This event is organised and supported by CenSAMM: the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. CenSAMM was established in 2015 to promote high quality critical and academic research into apocalyptic and millenarian movements across time, place and culture.