From Robben Island to Goree Island
As an African American growing up in the southern city of Nashville I always dreamed of going to an island, seeing the waves of the ocean crash on the beachfront, and watch the sunset. So when I made my first trip to Jamaica one of my dreams came true. I took in the Caribbean skyline drinking coconut juice. Then I realized there was another dream unfulfilled and that was venturing to the vast homeland Mother Africa.
I have been to Africa a few times since that vision first appeared, and each time I think about what a beautiful, diverse, and historical continent it is. Each visit to Africa whether it is Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana or Senegal I continue to get a crash course in cultural filmmaking. I record the smiles of school children as they approach me even when I try to blend in and be unnoticeable. The landscape of the mountains and the oceon are hypnotizing, it consistently gives me a strong emotional feeling of what we are missing in the Americas.
