Goodbye Uncle Tom (Italian: Addio Zio Tom) is a 1971 Italian mondo docudrama co-directed and co-written by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi with music by Riz Ortolani. Based on true events, the filmmakers explore antebellum America, using period documents to examine in graphic detail the racist ideology and degrading conditions faced by Africans under slavery. Due to the use of published documents and materials from the public record, it is labeled a documentary, though all footage is re-staged using actors.
The film was shot primarily in Haiti, where directors Jacopetti and Prosperi were treated as guests of Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvalier. Duvalier supported the filmmakers by giving them diplomatic cars, clearance to film anywhere on the island, as many extras as they required, and even a weekly dinner with Duvalier himself. Hundreds of Haitian extras participated in the film’s various depictions of the cruel treatment of slaves, as well as white actors portraying historical characters (including Harriet Beecher Stowe).
Scenes were also shot in the U.S. states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.