Unveiling Secrets: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds Reveals the Untold Stories Behind His Groundbreaking Work
My conversation with executive producer and showrunner of the new eight-episode TV series “Washington Black” which is on Hulu now.
One of the benefits of social media is the way it facilitates connections between people. That’s what happened with Selwyn Hinds and myself over a decade ago. A fan of my blog, Selwyn and I stayed in touch over the years. In 2021, Selwyn landed the gig of adapting the lauded novel Washington Black as a Hulu miniseries. And what an adventure this has been!
Here is how Hulu describes the story on the series website:
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Washington Black follows the 19th-century odyssey of George Washington “Wash” Black, an eleven-year-old boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation, whose prodigious scientific mind sets him on a path of unexpected destiny. When a harrowing incident forces Wash to flee, he is thrust into a globe-spanning adventure that challenges and reshapes his understanding of family, freedom and love. As he navigates uncharted lands and impossible odds, Wash finds the courage to imagine a future beyond the confines of the society he was born into.
Starring: Tom Ellis, Rupert Graves, Iola Evans, Ernest Kingsley Junior, Eddie Karanja
Creator: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Production on the series spanned three years (2022–2024), several continents, Covid protocols and Hollywood industry strikes. Selwyn and I get into that and much more in this exclusive Go Into The Story interview.
Scott Myers: Let’s start our conversation with the novel, the series is based on, written by Esi Edugyan and published in 2018, much lauded novel. I want you to go back in time. What were your reactions, do you remember, that you were having as you were reading it? What aspects of the story were you connecting with?
Selwyn Hinds: First and foremost, just as a piece of craft and a piece of writing, the novel just blew me away. Unsurprisingly, it did that to everyone who read it. It also turned out to be extraordinarily personal in several ways.
