After a long covid-cation, the Gullah Gone documentary team is back in action. I’ve been back to St. Helena Island to film and get updated footage. For a long time, I stayed away for fear of contaminating someone with COVID. Many of the people I’m filming are at high risk for contracting COVID, and I knew they were staying isolated. Finally, we can meet carefully, share our COVID stories and get caught up on one another’s lives.
Back in Columbia, two students are working with me this summer updating the website and editing interviews.
Aaron Falls of Clover, SC, is a third-year visual communications major. He is heading up the web design revamp, modernizing it to meet security needs and to keep the information relevant. He is also editing the most recent footage. Aaron is not new to The Gullah Project. Even during the COVID crisis he worked from home to help catalog our photos and video. He helps us keep things organized. As a student in the SC Honors College, Aaron is required to complete 150 hours of a beyond the classroom experience, and we are proud that he did all of them for Gullah Gone.
Aaron says, “I have been involved with The Gullah Project for the past year and a half. What I enjoy the most about working on this project is learning more about a group found right in our backyard of South Carolina and sharing their unique stories.”
New to the team is De’Andrea Cobb of Columbia, a rising senior and also a visual communications major. She is part of the SMART program that pairs minority students with UofSC professor mentors. De’Andrea’s tasks are working with Aaron on web content and doing some video and audio editing. We work together two days a week.
De’Andrea says, “I decided to join Gullah Gone Project to learn more about the culture and how important it is to preserve your heritage while gaining new skills in web design and editing.”
It’s going to be a good summer. Keep checking back for more news.
Gullah Gone 
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