Elegance Bratton to Direct Documentary ‘Hellfighters’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFilmmaker Elegance Bratton, a Marine Corps veteran and Sundance Film Festival alum, is set to direct the documentary “Hellfighters.” The film chronicles the life of James Reese Europe, an African American jazz pioneer who served as a lieutenant during World War I in the Black military unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters.“As a veteran and artist like James Reese Europe, I immediately knew I wanted to tell his story,” Bratton said. “WWI was driven by Europe’s desire for control of Africa — there is a cruel irony in that the Hellfighters believed the only way to gain full meaning of U.S.