RALEIGH - NAACP members and other guests crowded a North Raleigh Hilton ballroom late Saturday night to see actors Danny Glover and Giancarlo Esposito screen their latest film, "Gospel Hill," at the 65th annual NAACP State Convention.

"Gospel Hill" is an ensemble piece about African-American residents in a South Carolina town going through gentrification during the 40th anniversary of the assassination of a local civil rights leader (played by Samuel L. Jackson). Glover plays the son of said leader, while Esposito, who also produced and directed the movie, plays a land-buying doctor.

Glover, 62, and Esposito, 50, addressed the crowd beforehand on what inspired them to make the movie. Esposito said he decided to make the low-budget "Hill" when he felt he wasn't ready to tackle Glover's dream project: a biopic on Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture.

"I was able to realize this dream of 'Gospel Hill' because it was an American story, and I was not ready to tell the international story that I thought I was ready to tell," Esposito said.

Glover expressed how difficult it is to get socially relevant films like "Hill" and the L'Ouverture biopic off the ground.

"There's a whole lot to say about the black community," Glover said. "We all went to see 'Color Purple.' It made a lot of money, you know. We made a lot of money. ... And that's what happens. That's how you get these movies done.

"So, when I go or Gian goes to a producer and says, 'I got a movie -- this movie.' And they say, 'Oh yeah, gimme the demographics, OK. What are the numbers on it?' And you look at the numbers, and they gonna OK it on the numbers. Believe me."

Esposito seconded Glover's comments afterward in the hotel lobby. "Hill" has a video distribution commitment from Fox, he said, but he would still love to see it get a theatrical run early next year. "With that, I had anticipated showing the folks at Fox that I had the ability to create a grass-roots audience for the film," he said. "And Wyatt [Closs, from the Service Employees International Union] suggested that I show it down here at the NAACP convention so that I could allow African-American people to see a movie that had social relevance, that was encouraging change and encouraging them to see that they had power in their vote."

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