THE NIGHT BEFORE

A film by Ricardo Preve about the last night in the life of

THOMAS JEFFERSON

About the film:  THE NIGHT BEFORE is the final film in a trilogy depicting the last nights on earth for three influential historical figures. Since no clear records exist revealing the specifics of these nights, the film’s producer and director, Ricardo Preve, uses an artistic license to dramatize key slices of the past.  

For THE NIGHT BEFORE Mr. Preve operates on the widely accepted premise that Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings had a decades-long sentimental relationship and several children, and the documented fact that they were at Jefferson’s home Monticello near Charlottesville on the last night in Jefferson’s life.

On that night of July 3, 1826, there were over 100 people at Monticello as Jefferson lay dying in his bedroom. Only three of these people had been in Paris 40 years before- Mr. Jefferson himself, his daughter Martha, and Sally Hemings, who was the half-sister of Jefferson’s late wife Martha Wayles Jefferson.

Did Jefferson have a final conversation with his family about his relationship with Sally? Did Sally herself walk into Jefferson’s bedroom to speak directly with him? Did they anticipate the challenges that Sally and their children would face once Jefferson passed? What if Jefferson, Sally, and one of his granddaughters, Mary Jefferson Randolph, got together that last night to clear things up?

THE NIGHT BEFORE brings a camera into Jefferson’s bedroom to let us look into a very intimate and moving conversation into the subjects of race, love, family, and politics. 

The First Two Pieces of the Trilogy:  LA NOCHE ANTES, the first part of the trilogy, depicted the last night of Argentine independence figure Martin Guemes, played by Argentine actor Alex Benn, and a hypothetical conversation he may have had with his sister, portrayed by Argentine actress Ana Celentano.  Completed in 2006, the film was shown at the Lleida Film Festival in Spain, the Pesaro and Portello Film Festivals in Italy, the Salta Argentine Cinema Week in Argentina, and as a work-in-progress at the Berlin and Mar del Plata International Film Festivals. 

The second part of the trilogy, LA NOTTE PRIMA, fictionalized Anita Garibaldi’s last night as she lay dying in a swamp in northern Italy, and was completed in 2007. Anita was the wife of Italian independence hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, and was played in the film by Italian actress Jackie Lustig, while Garibaldi himself was portrayed by Italian actor Fulvio Falzarano. This film received financial support from the Italian Ministry of Culture, and the cities of Rome in Italy, and Nice in France. It appeared in numerous festivals including the Chennai International Short Film Festival in India where it won the prize for Best International Short Film.