Huge Update: February 2025

As-Salaamu Alaikum everyone,

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for your patience and support. I know it’s been a while since our last update, but I promise you—it’s because we’ve been working tirelessly to bring this project to life. And now, I’m thrilled to share that we are so close to the finish line!

When we launched this campaign, we set an ambitious but necessary goal of $450,000 to produce a studio-quality, investigative docuseries—a project of this scale is rarely done on a budget this lean. In our first round of fundraising, we raised $245,000, and of that, $130,000 has been collected.

Here’s the great news: We no longer need $450,000 to finish this series. Because of our team’s sacrifices, strategic decisions, and sheer determination, we’ve managed to cut costs by $200,000—and that means we are now only $120,000 away from completing this documentary by the promised deadline of May this year!

What We’ve Accomplished So Far (With Your Support!):

✅ Flew our production crew from the UK to Atlanta for two weeks of filming

✅ Provided airfare, ride service, and lodging for all interviewees

✅ Filmed the crime scene in Atlanta and the capture scene in White Hall, Alabama

✅ Outsourced footage of the prison in Tucson where Imam Jamil was held for years

✅ Conducted exclusive interviews with:

• Grammy-winning rapper and activist Killer Mike

• Civil Rights historians Arun Kundnani and Peter Levy

• Imam Jamil Al-Amin himself

• The lead attorney for the prosecution

• Otis Jackson, the man who has been confessing to this crime for 25 years

• New and old eyewitnesses who provided shocking new evidence

💥 We uncovered evidence that cracks this case wide open.

💥 We also created a powerful 6-minute trailer to show exactly how far we’ve come. 

(Please let us know what you think)…And believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What We Need Now (And Why We Need You!):

To complete this project and release it on schedule, we need to:

🔹 Fund the final edits for the docuseries

🔹 Conduct two final, critical interviews that could further Imam Jamil’s legal case

🔹 Properly market and pitch the series to distributors so it reaches the widest audience possible

This isn’t just about finishing a documentary. This project is directly tied to the legal defense and the fight for Imam Jamil’s freedom. I can’t share everything yet, but I will say this: We are more optimistic than ever that he will be released.

The new evidence we’ve uncovered doesn’t just exonerate Imam Jamil—it solves this case for the victim’s family and the state‼️

We have 30 days to raise the final $120,000. That’s it. That’s all that stands between us and the truth reaching the world.

✨ Please, if you are able, contribute today.

✨ Help us finish this project.

✨ Help us reintroduce this injustice to the masses.

✨ Help us free Imam Jamil Al-Amin fka H. Rap Brown

✨ Help me free my father 🙏🏽

The Imam's health is deteriorating so we are up against a different kind of clock now. Please, every dollar gets us closer. Every share brings in more support. We are almost there—let’s finish this fight together.

As Salaamu Alaikum! 

What Happened To H. Rap Brown is a gripping true crime tale complete with everything you typically only see in big Hollywood blockbusters!

Espionage, government conspiracies, murder confessions, witness disappearances...but what really happened to H. Rap Brown that fateful night in March of 2000? 

We're working with an amazing team of award winning attorneys, investigators, producers and distributors to make this possible (see below)! 

But we need your help to take this mainstream!

We are in communication with most of the major streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount to name a few) and there is serious interest in a complete project so...here we are humbly asking for your support so we can give them what they are asking for! 

Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown is an innocent man, freedom fighter, civil rights leader and humanitarian serving life in prison for murder he did not commit.

This is his story and whether you're here because of your love for the man, your love of freedom, your belief in justice or just your addiction to true crime lol, I appreciate you for helping us tell it!

The Episode Guide 

Episode 1 – “Violence is as American as Cherry Pie”

This episode starts by exploring Browns early life and activism. We then dive into the states case against Brown in 2000 shooting of Deputies Kinchen and English, the subsequent manhunt and arrest of Brown . The episode ends by introducing Otis Jacksons shocking confession. 

Episode 2 – “Who shot the sheriff?” 

In this episode we start to unpack the extent to which the FBI was involved leading up to the incident, failures of Browns defense, exposing how Otis Jacksons confession for murder was not used in the trial and why. We will also be exploring the validity of Otis’ confession and whether his account of events can be relied upon. 

But what about the eyewitnesses? Could the shooter have been someone else entirely!?!

Episode 3 – “New Evidence...Revisited!” 

The case against Brown rested heavily on circumstantial evidence as well as a few key pieces of forensics. In this episode we explore the reliability of this evidence and how it may have been compromised by incompetence, prejudice and potential abuses of power.

Lastly, we'll be taking a look at the new and relevant evidence not presented at trial in an effort to present the total picture surrounding that fateful night! Recreating all viable scenarios in hopes that we can finally uncover what really happened to H. Rap Brown all those years ago!

Studio and Production Company:  Tas Brooker, Wiser Films

Wiser Films is a well-established UK based independent production company. Led by executive producer Tas Brooker, a filmmaker who has been working in the creative industries for the last 23 years. Tas is currently a member of the prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 

Wiser Films recently produced the award-winning film “When We Speak”. This award winning film explores the stories of three courageous women who each (at great personal risk) stood up for what they believed in, exposing injustices committed by some of the most powerful people on earth. The impact of each of these courageous women’s actions have been felt around the world, fundamentally changing how we viewed international affairs such as the UK’s invasion of Iraq, as well-known institutions such as Hollywood and Oxfam 

Many of Wiser Films projects revolve around a search for, or exposing of a truth, no matter how hard it maybe to hear, as well as the championing under-represented communities. 

Over recent years Wiser has forged close alliances with international distributors such as Abacus Distribution and Bohemia Media, both of which have experience promoting films on an international scale working with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO. In addition, Bohemia Media have a strong track record working with minority ethnic producers, recently backing Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised.

Distributor: Johnathan Ford, Abacus Media Rights

Abacus Media Rights acquires and distributes a diverse slate of premium programming in the international market. At the same time, our experienced team works with producers to facilitate pre-sales and development finance as well as broadcaster commissions.

Embracing a fully transparent reporting ethos throughout, our focus is on building strong client relationships and generating positive solutions at every stage of the process, from initial financing to worldwide broadcast. Whether you are producing, acquiring or commissioning, Abacus Media Rights is the perfect partner to deliver scripted and non-scripted entertainment that counts to a global audience.

The Innocence Project - Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation

The Innocence Project is representing Imam Jamil Al-Amin in his fight for exoneration! 

Vanessa Potkin is the Director of Special Litigation at The Innocence Project. She joined the Project in 2000 as its first staff attorney, and has helped pioneer the model of post-conviction DNA litigation used nationwide to exonerate wrongfully convicted persons. 

Vanessa has represented and exonerated over 30 innocent individuals, from Louisiana to Nevada, who collectively served over 500 years of wrongful imprisonment, five of whom were originally prosecuted for capital murder. Vanessa maintains a post-conviction docket, crafting litigation strategy, writing motions, and litigating in trial and appellate courts nationwide to secure post-conviction DNA testing and to obtain relief based DNA test results, and other exculpatory evidence in cases involving: false confessions, erroneous eyewitness identification, informant testimony, faulty forensics, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel. 

The Budget and Schedule Breakdown

Why is it so expensive to get this done? I asked the same question when first deciding to work with our production company. The short answer is, the goal is to compete with the best! 

True crime and the docuseries genre is booming and some productions are costing millions so a per episode cost of under 200k with travel, crew, equipment, location, interview compensation, animation etc, is reasonable for the scope what we are trying to accomplish. We are creating this for the netflix's and hulu's of the world as opposed to public broadcasting and we need to be able to standup and standout amidst our competition on those kinds of platforms!

Click here to view our detailed budget to see exactly where the money is going!

If the fundraising goal is completed by May 2024, we will begin filming during the fall of 2024.  

The goal is to have the series completed by the Summer/Fall of 2025.