I’m excited to reveal the upcoming premiere of Her Name Was Hester, an ethnographic documentary film that shares a timeless heartfelt story and came into being as a collaborative community labor-of-love. So many community members contributed because the story represents a genuine effort at reconciliation that provides real hope and vision in a time when it is so desperately needed. I began following this story as a feminist piece, documenting a woman moving back to farm in her patriarchal home community, Dirt Town, Georgia, and I envisioned it as a short. But the story became increasingly serious and significant and before I knew it, I had invested five years in documenting because serendipitous events just kept happening, and more and more community members got involved. As we dug into the editing, we decided to omit some of the more hateful aspects of the story, much of which our society already knows more generally, and to pursue the redemption, forgiving, reparation (repair), basically to emphasize that which we hear too little of in mainstream media, perhaps because it’s so rare, or maybe because these stories just don’t get told often enough.
Logline:
She came home to farm, but stories of her ancestors compelled her to cultivate reconciliation in her community.
Trailer:
https://youtu.be/fMNaP_OcIpY
https://filmfreeway.com/HerNamewasHester
Brian C. Campbell
Brian serves Berry College as the Chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Studies, affiliate member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and as Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies.
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