An impressive lineup has joined the Gullah Gone filmmaking team, bringing formidable expertise to the project as we work to complete production.
Byron Hurt is executive producer. The award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer and anti-sexist activist will serve a mentoring role and consult every aspect of the one-hour documentary as it completes production.
Hurt is an Emmy-nominated TV show host and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Journalism School. His critically acclaimed documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast nationally on PBS’ Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens. He is also a consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative, a storytelling project for boys and young men of color.
“Byron will help us shed light on an important untold African American story,” said director/producer Denise McGill. “He understands the rich history of the Gullah land and culture as well as the need to preserve it.”
Lacy Barnes is crowdfunding manager for our upcoming campaign. Barnes was line producer for the documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice, produced by Coffee Bluff Pictures and nominated for the 2017 NAACP Image Award. She also worked on the film’s incredibly successful crowdfunding campaign. She has extensive experience in event planning and marketing.
Kim-Kim Foster Tobin joins production crew, recording audio and video on location. Foster Tobin was formerly an award-winning staff photographer for The State newspaper.
Wesley Broome is assistant editor. Broome has a BFA in filmmaking from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has directed and edited several short films.
Finally, we say goodbye to Sherard Duvall. Divergent visions for the film required him to step down from his role as producer. Duvall says, “I’ve truly relished working with project director/producer Denise McGill to tell this absolutely remarkable, timely and necessary story. I am very proud of all that we’ve accomplished in the past two years.” We wish you well, Sherard.
Gullah Gone is currently in production phase. Recent honors for the film include selection by Working Films and Cucalorus Film Festival for their Work in Progress Lab at Wilmington, N.C.; by Southern Documentary Fund for its Spring Showcase in Durham, N.C. Additionally, the team was invited to pitch with Docs in Progress at Double Exposure Investigative Documentary Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Gullah Gone 