In an effort to honor the 110 enslaved Africans who were illicitly brought to the United States on the schooner Clotilda in 1860, a team of professors are completing a historical documentary film that will attempt to capture the essence of those people through a recounting of their experiences before, during and after enslavement in Alabama and the establishment of Africatown, one of the only known settlements of exclusively native Africans in the United States.
Through support from the Alabama Humanities Foundation (AHF) and Mobile County Commissioner, Merceria Ludgood, the team has raised $11,617 for production costs and also received a matching grant for post-production from AHF.
The film production team is comprised of Ryan Noble, Assistant Professor at Spring Hill College, Dr. Joél Lewis Billingsley, Associate Professor at the University of South Alabama, and Dr. Robert Gray, Associate Professor at the University of Bergen, and the team will produce a documentary featuring the oral history of their descendants, interviews with historians, and a visual examination of historical documents.
This project will produce a feature length (50-80 minute) film, initiate a community-based art exhibit production including a collection of poems, create a useful curriculum of visual-based educational clips with study prompts, and will culminate in a series of exhibitions of the film with the community art project in locations around Alabama.
Your generous support will allow us to complete the production phase of the project, to complete our documentary on this painful and important chapter in our State’s history.
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