We are currently in the "dogs days" of development of the Black farmer documentary. That simply means that there has been a huge transition going on. The first huge phase was creating contacts, schedules, and traveling on-site to interview the farmers and other principals for the documentary. Over the better part of two years, Shoun and I have traveled (oftentimes with our driver, Charla) to Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, DC, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. We interviewed in their homes and Shoun took "b-roll" footage of their farms and portraits of the farmers.
Since then, we have secured some amazing drone footage of two farms that show the up and the downs, the triumphs and the tragedies of farming while Black in America.
Shoun is now doing the creating and likely exhausting work of pulling sound bites from the myriad of interviews and hours that tell the stories of struggle and resilience of those brave farmers who went up against the USDA from 1997-1999 and won their cases. "Won" is a word we'll deconstruct in the film. The USDA and its power structure always has a way of winning despite loosing, thanks to the DOJ and OGC.
My role has been that of fact-checking, contacting specific people whose names came up repeatedly in the interviews, and providing Shoun with information and data as he works on the script.
While we did interview 9 of the 15 farmers/families, we were not able to contact three others as they have died since then. One adult child of a farmer who settled declined to participate with us. Two farmers who prevailed opted not to interview with us due to legal obligations of their own.
So, we are inching toward the 16th Black Land Loss Summit in Roanoke Rapids, NC, on November 8 and 9.
If you are reading this and know that your friends contributed to this effort, please forward to them and/or repost to your own FB page. Will update you all in another few weeks.
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