“After Sherman speaks to the double consciousness that many marginalized communities live with while engaging with the dominant culture, one where history is just below the surface for some Americans and at the forefront for the rest of us. I have a conversation with the past, telling my ancestor’s stories of Gullah liberation. You can reach the land by dirt road, or by boat if you sail down the Santee River towards the Atlantic. The land presents unanswered questions about ownership, belonging, citizenship and history.” – Jon-Sesrie Goff
The filmmaker also follows his father, a minister, in the aftermath of a mass shooting at his church in Charleston, South Carolina to understand how communities of descendants of enslaved Africans use their unique faith as a form of survival as they continue to fight for America to live up to its many unfulfilled promises to Black Americans.
The screening is offered through Professor Thomas Allen Harris’ Family Narrative/Cultural Shifts course and Yale Divinity School’s Offices of Alumni and DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion), in advance of the PBS release of the documentary. The screening is followed by a panel discussion with director Jon-Sesrie Goff, Dr. Elijah Heyward III ‘07 M.A.R., Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff Sr. ‘91 M.Div., Prof. Thomas Allen Harris, moderated by Ryan Lindsay Arrendell ‘23 M.Div., President of Yale Black Seminarians.