OUR ANCESTORS ARE OUR FUTURE DOCU-SERIES

FILMMAKERS, AGES 18-23 WILL HAVE THE RARE OPPORTUNITY TO SHADOW A WOMAN-PREDOMINANT PROFESSIONAL CREW!

They will receive hands-on training and advice from DP’s, camera operators, sound techs, grips, gaffers, designers, editors, writers, and producers during this road trip docu-series.

TRACING THE DUST TRACKS OF ZORA NEALE HURSTON.

Each week, interviews, tours, staged readings, musical and dance performances, lectures, round tables, and more will be filmed and edited to stream on all applicable platforms. There will be approximately 100 files of media at the end of each shooting week.

THE FILMMAKERS WILL BE INTERVIEWED on camera and included in their own making-of series designed to to deepen the industry and ancestral information they learned throughout the shooting week.

At the wrap of each 12-week season, INDIEFEMME FILMS will host a filmmaking seminar/workshop and awards dinner highlighting exceptional work throughout the season.

Ultimately, a new generation of talented filmmakers will be inspired to produce more stories of other important figures in recent history. They will have a new appreciation for the past and the understanding that “our ancestors are our future”.

Once the first season is wrapped and scheduled, the series can continue on with Zora or explore the lives of other ancestors.

The following pages include some of the subjects for the first season. The ultimate vision of TRACING ZORA’S DUST TRACKS is to also follow Zora’s nautical miles to Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. We can create an ongoing program that would make Bourdain proud!

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NEW ORLEANS

“I have landed in the kingdom of Marie Laveau and expect to wear her crown someday.” - Zora

The team will travel to New Orleans to trace Zora's footsteps in her efforts to learn about Hoodoo from the nephew of Marie Laveau. They will also film a roundtable discussion based on the mythology and relevance of Marie Laveau.

EATONVILLE, FL

“A city of 5 lakes, 3 croquet courts, 300 brown skins, 300 good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools, and no jailhouse." - Zora

The team will travel to Eatonville to learn about the town's founder, Joe Clarke. They will tour Zora's stomping grounds, learn about the current preservation efforts of Eatonville and other Black towns, and discuss what it would take to incorporate a town today.

SANFORD, FL

"Distance is the only cure for certain diseases." - Zora

The team will travel to Sanford, FL to learn about the early Black church and Zora's father, John Hurston's ministry. They will film a roundtable discussing Jonah's Gourd Vine, the evolution of the Black church, and race relations, particularly in Trayvon Martin's neighborhood.

ST. AUGUSTINE & CROSS CREEK, FL

"...and I have never in my life been so glad that I was not a coward" - Marjorie Rawlings

The team will visit the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park to film discussions about her friendship with Zora Neale Hurston. They will then travel to St. Augustine, FL to visit the hotel once owned by Rawling's husband and discuss the courage necessary to defeat Jim Crow and how it relates to all forms of oppression today.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history." - CGW

The team will film interviews and roundtables discussing the life and work of Dr. Carter G. Woodson

HOWARD UNIVERSITY

"They say the same thing about a Howard man that they do about a Harvard man, you can tell a Howard man as far as you can see him but you can’t tell him much." - Zora

The team will film interviews, tours, and discussions about Zora's time at Howard, as well as the history of Black Greek Letter Orgs, the intentions of General Howard, and the life of Dr. Alain Locke.

NASHVILLE, TN

"Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction." - Dr. Du Bois

The team will film a tour of Fisk University and discussions of the lives and work of Dr. Du Bois, Charles S. Johnson, and Carl Van Vechten.

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HARLEM, NY

"I'd rather be a lamppost in Harlem than a mayor of any town in Georgia."
- Langston Hughes

The team will travel to Harlem, NY to film discussions, staged readings, interviews, and tours related to the life of Zora Neale Hurston and her associates

BARNARD COLLEGE, NY

"If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present." - Dr. Franz Boas

The team will film interviews about the history of Barnard College, and the lives of Dr. Franz Boas, Melville Herskovitz, and Annie Nathan Meyer. They will also film round tables and staged readings based on Zora's work and the work of other notable Barnard graduates.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL

"...I decided to abandon the farce of Bethune-Cookman’s dramatic department… She is a swell person, but the affair is too full of distraction… Then there is no money.” - Zora

The team will film interviews and discussions based on the life of Mary McLeod Bethune and her relationship with Zora.

TUSKEGEE, AL

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The team will film interviews and discussions based on the life and philosophy of Booker T. Washington.

JACKSONVILLE, FL

“There is more than one way to be Kluxed, and we need to think about ourselves and the kind of people we elect into public office.” - Stetson Kennedy

The team will film discussions regarding the courage of Stetson Kennedy and his work with the WPA.