The Underground Railroad

Friday, July 16 - Thursday, July 22, 2021

Barry Jenkins’s Acclaimed Limited Series Has an Exclusive Limited Engagement

July 16-22 — One Week Only on the Big Screen

IFC Center is proud to announce an exclusive presentation of Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins’s acclaimed Amazon Original limited series, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, screening for a limited one-week engagement July 16-22. Click here for a look at the full schedule.

The program includes all ten chapters, presented in paired groupings. If you want to watch all the chapters you can start on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and watch the paired chapters on consecutive days.

Excerpts from THE GAZE, Jenkins’s hourlong non-narrative companion piece to THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, will screen in the week before and during the engagement.

“Barry Jenkins is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker, and has created yet another masterwork with THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,” said IFC Center’s John Vanco. “While it is a series, the story of Cora and the world that Barry and his team have crafted deserve the biggest screen possible, and we are thrilled to be the ones bringing it to New York.”

The 10-episode limited series is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD chronicles Cora Randall’s (newcomer Thuso Mbedu) desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

Over the course of her journey, Cora is pursued by Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), a bounty hunter who is fixated on bringing her back to the plantation she escaped; especially since her mother Mabel is the only one he has never caught.

As she travels from state to state, Cora contends with the legacy of the mother that left her behind and her own struggles to realize a life she never thought was possible.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD stars Thuso Mbedu, Chase W. Dillon and Joel Edgerton. Aaron Pierre, William Jackson Harper, Sheila Atim, Amber Gray, Peter De Jersey, Chukwudi Iwuji, Damon Herriman, Lily Rabe, Irone Singleton, Mychal-Bella Bowman, Marcus “MJ” Gladney, Jr., Will Poulter and Peter Mullan round out the cast.

Barry Jenkins serves as showrunner and directs all ten episodes of the limited series. He executive produces alongside Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt and Colson Whitehead. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD is a production of Plan B, Pastel and Big Indie with Amazon Studios. 

Tickets to screenings of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD are free of charge. Advance tickets are available online or at the box office; online non-member tickets are subject to an online booking fee. Each day at noon July 16-22, a limited number of additional tickets will be released at the box office for that day’s shows. There is a limit of two tickets per screening per customer.

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