Descendant
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Reckonings: Margaret Brown on Her Netflix Documentary, Descendant
Filmmaker Margaret Brown’s second feature documentary, 2008’s The Order of Myths, about segregated Mardi Gras ceremonies in Mobile, Ala., is structured around a historical trauma with present-day resonance. The ancestors of Black Mardi Gras queen Stefannie Lucas were brought to Alabama on the Clotilda, the last known ship to land on U.S. shores with enslaved Africans (well after the practice had been outlawed); the white queen, Helen Meaher, was descended from the Alabama family that owned the boat. As the community and historians undertook a mission to locate the remains of the Clotilda, which they successfully found in 2019, it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 11, 2022 -
“It’s a Lot Easier to Make a Genuine Connection With Someone Without a Whole Bunch of Gear in Between You and Them”: DPs Zac Manuel & Justin Zweifach on Descendant
Just north of Mobile, Alabama is the historic community of Africatown founded by 32 West Africans who were transported to the US on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter the country. Margaret Brown’s Descendant tells the story of the descendants who still reside in Africatown, as well as of the persistent power imbalance between the descendants of the slaves and the descendants of the Meaher family that chartered the expedition, who today own much of the industrialized land and factories around Africatown. Cinematographers Justin Zweifach and Zac Manuel discuss what they learned making the film and how they […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2022 -
“This Film Feels Like My Life’s Work Until Now” | Margaret Brown, Descendant
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? From the beginning, the story of the Africatown community did not feel like mine to try to tell. Fascinations with the Old South, and ghosts and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2022 -
“What’s Exciting About Spending a Lot of Time With Footage Is Always the Patterns That Begin to Emerge”: Editors Geoffrey Richman and Michael Bloch on Descendant
The 2019 discovery of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter the United States, was the impetus for Descendant, but the film is as much about the contemporary residents of Africatown, the community just north of Mobile, Alabama founded by the slaves aboard the Clotilda. The film’s editors explain why they did not want to introduce the discovery of the ship too early, how Zora Neale Thurston helped shape the film, and how seemingly disparate elements gradually formed connections. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2022
