 |
|
 |
Director(s): Katrina Browne Screenwriter(s): Katrina Browne, Alla Kovgan Codirectors: Alla Kovgan, Jude Ray Executive Producer: Elizabeth Delude-Dix Coexecutive Producer: Jude Ray Producer: Katrina Browne Coproducers: Juanita Brown, Elizabeth Delude-Dix Cinematographer: Liz Dory Editor: Alla Kovgan |
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
Documentary
U.S.A., 2008, 86 mins, Color
Self-examination is good for the soul according to the saying, and the piercing personal and social introspection first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne conducts of her family history is a revelation because it’s far more than just a personal narrative. Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North is both psychology and history, the story of her forebears, the De Wolfs, the largest slave-trading family in United States history.
From 1769 to 1820, three generations of De Wolfs transported more than 10,000 Africans into slavery. Contrary to the myth of southern guilt, they were staunch New England Protestants, who received special dispensation from President Jefferson to continue trading long after it was outlawed. Browne wrote to more than 200 family descendants, inviting them to join her in tracing her family’s submerged legacy; 9 signed up and take a journey from the slave forts of Ghana to the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba.
This past portrait is fascinating, but it is their encounter with a minefield of racial politics that prompts the film’s real questions. What is their personal complicity? Who owes whom what for the sins of their fathers? And what are the possibilities for reparation, both spiritual and material? In this bicentennial year of the abolition of the slave trade, Traces of the Trade makes a potent statement about privilege and responsibility.
From 1769 to 1820, three generations of De Wolfs transported more than 10,000 Africans into slavery. Contrary to the myth of southern guilt, they were staunch New England Protestants, who received special dispensation from President Jefferson to continue trading long after it was outlawed. Browne wrote to more than 200 family descendants, inviting them to join her in tracing her family’s submerged legacy; 9 signed up and take a journey from the slave forts of Ghana to the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba.
This past portrait is fascinating, but it is their encounter with a minefield of racial politics that prompts the film’s real questions. What is their personal complicity? Who owes whom what for the sins of their fathers? And what are the possibilities for reparation, both spiritual and material? In this bicentennial year of the abolition of the slave trade, Traces of the Trade makes a potent statement about privilege and responsibility.
Katrina Browne - Katrina Browne has devoted nine years to making Traces of the Trade and developing the family and community dialogue that has shaped the film. Browne was one of two filmmakers to receive a prestigious Animating Democracy Initiative grant from Americans for the Arts/Ford Foundation for this film. Previously she served as outreach planning coordinator for Anna Deavere Smith’s film Twilight: Los Angeles. Browne is the cofounder of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that recruits young people and people of color into public service. She has an MA in theology from the Pacific School of Religion.
Screenings:
Mon. January 21, 6:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Tue. January 22, 4:00pm, Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Thu. January 24, 11:30am, Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Thu. January 24, 9:00pm, Broadway Centre Cinemas IV, SLC
Fri. January 25, 3:00pm, Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Sat. January 26, 8:30am, Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
Mon. January 21, 6:15pm, Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Tue. January 22, 4:00pm, Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Thu. January 24, 11:30am, Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Thu. January 24, 9:00pm, Broadway Centre Cinemas IV, SLC
Fri. January 25, 3:00pm, Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Sat. January 26, 8:30am, Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
Katrina Browne
Ebb Pod Productions
P.O. Box 302236
Boston, MA 02130
(617) 349-0019
kbrowne@tracesofthetrade.org
Ebb Pod Productions
P.O. Box 302236
Boston, MA 02130
(617) 349-0019
kbrowne@tracesofthetrade.org
