'Traces of the Trade' and Philanthropy
[Source: Philanthropy News Digest, a service of the Foundation Center]
By Kathryn Pyle, an independent film producer and a frequent contributor to PhilanTopic, the PND blog
Five hundred people filled an auditorium at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., this spring to accompany an extraordinary family on an extraordinary journey. The event was a special screening of Traces of the Trade, a feature-length documentary since shown on PBS’ POV program that is now making the rounds of film festivals and community centers. The documentary records ten descendants of a New England slave trader as they discover the details of the trade, confront what the legacy means for them personally, and take steps to make things right. Their moral dilemma, of course, is the dilemma of our nation, as we consider the great task still remaining before us.
The event was part of the Council on Foundations' annual gathering and was a council first in terms of public profile: the film was followed by a panel discussion hosted by Judy Woodruff, the PBS Newshour journalist, and Charles Olgletree of Harvard Law School. Former council president and ambassador to South Africa James Joseph was joined by several other panel members, all experts in related fields, for comments, and the audience of funders and invited community representatives continued a conversation with the panel and the filmmakers.
But the screening was only the most public of a long-standing program that has brought funders to media and media to funders. The council's annual Film and Video Festival (F&VF) showcases works supported by the council's own members -– private and corporate foundations. With financing from more than thirty private foundations, religious groups, public broadcasting and government arts agencies, plus many individuals, Traces of the Trade was an apt choice for this special event. It also put the festival itself, and the organizations behind it, in the spotlight.
Organized by an informal group of cinephiles headed by Phil Hallen, then president of the Falk Foundation in Pittsburgh, the festival began as a sidebar to the council's first-ever annual conference and has been part of the annual gathering for forty-one years.
"I loved film, and my board saw it as an extension of our grants for academic publications; as another way to communicate ideas, particularly related to civil rights. We supported more than one hundred documentaries,” says Phil, who is now retired and president emeritus of the foundation.
"In 1968 or so I was on the program committee for the council conference in Kansas City and I said, 'Let's show some films!' We identified a handful that foundations had supported, found a closet and a projector, and about three or four people wandered in for each showing."
Within a few years it was a formal part of the conference, with Karen Menichelli at the Benton Foundation, which focuses on media, taking the lead. Hallen added, "Once we tied the festival to the themes of the conference and linked the films to the sessions, people could more easily see the power of the medium. It really took off then."
Along the way, a curator was hired to professionalize the program and sift through the increasing number of films supported by the council's members: Linda Blackaby, now the director of programming at the San Francisco Film Society, was the first, followed by Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American University. For the past few years, curators (all with previous festival experience) have been invited to serve for one or two years; they help produce the festival catalog that describes the films and includes comments from the funders on why they supported them. The festival is now a multifaceted, multi-site forum on the social impact of media, with awards for exceptional films and peer support for funders who recognize their importance.
An affinity group was formed out of the initiative. (Affinity groups are a sort of subsidiary structure of the council, giving members a forum for their special interests.) Grantmakers in Film, Video & Television began on a volunteer basis in 1984; reflecting changes in technology and media behavior over the past decade, it's now called Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM). It was formally incorporated two years ago, has forty-five members (nine hundred funders get e-communications) and a staff of four, and is headed by former MacArthur Foundation program officer Alyce Myatt.
GFEM works with the Council on Foundations' Evelyn Gibson (Director, Awards Programs) to organize what's now the formal council program: the Film and Video Festival is not only part of the council's annual conference for all members but also its annual conference for community foundations and that for family foundations as well.
"Foundations and corporate giving programs support media to bring about change, to tell stories that otherwise wouldn't be told," says Gibson. "The council sees the festival is a venue to disseminate those stories; it's another way to help our members do their work."
This year, in addition to the Traces of the Trade event, the F&VF screened thirteen films produced recently with council members' support; three were followed by discussions with the filmmakers. About fifty people attend each screening; thousands see the films over the course of the three annual conferences. In past years, when the council meeting could be contained in just one hotel, the festival was available in a special screening room as well as in-room via the local TV cable; this year, with over three thousand people attending the main conference, the required multiple hotels make in-room prohibitive.
Two films received a Henry Hampton Award, named after the visionary executive producer of Eyes on the Prize; the award recognizes projects of particular quality and social merit. This year's winners were Made in L.A., about sweatshops in the U.S., and Salud, about the Cuban community-based health care model. Other GFEM programs included a session, selected as part of the council's official program, on the changing nature of media and its role in strengthening or weakening democracy.
(Film/video works are submitted by council members in June for consideration at the next year's council meeting -- more information, including "Ten Reasons Why Funders Fund Media," is available at www.fundfilm.org.)
Aside from the council's activities, GFEM offers a variety of member services related to its aim to be "a resource for grantmakers who fund media content, infrastructure, and policy and who employ media to further their program goals." The members are a diverse mix of staff and board of private and corporate foundations and media organizations who agree that "electronic media is a vital form of human expression, communication and creativity, and plays a key role in building public will and shaping civil society."
As noted by David Haas, GFEM chair, membership in the affinity group and interest among funders in general has grown dramatically over the years as funders have become more media savvy. "Compelling social issue documentary films and media projects can tell a story in a unique way, addressing issues that foundations care about."
What in particular about Traces of the Trade appealed to the festival committee as they planned the Newseum event? As I'll discuss in my next post, part of the answer lies in the subject matter itself, and part in the producers' eagerness to disseminate the film beyond the normal documentary channels.
'Traces of the Trade' and Philanthropy, Part 2
"The Traces of the Trade event was certainly outside our normal film program," says Alyce Myatt. "But the legacy of slavery and the need for dialogue around race, class, and privilege is so important. How can the philanthropic community address the issue? One way is through media, and this film is unique in terms of the issue and the funding it received. By showcasing it, GFEM can support and advance funders' policy goals."The film chronicles the journey of the ten family members, beginning in Bristol, Rhode Island, as they examine evidence of their slave-trader ancestors; then on to the west coast of Africa as they follow the route of the slave ships, stopping at one of the most notorious forts that held captives for resale and visiting one of the family's plantations in Cuba; and finally back to Bristol as they struggle with what to do next. Some descendents become involved in the broadly based reparations movement. Others engage in an Episcopal Church project to research how the church benefitted from the trade and what to do about it. The film's final message is a challenge to "bring all the stories out in the open," and to engage in dialogue with African Americans about our shared past.
As the film illustrates, the history of the slave trade, and of slavery in the U.S., is still being uncovered. The great surge of interest in that history during the 1960s and 1970s produced black studies programs, networks of academics and lay scholars; conferences, articles, books, films, radio, and other media projects; family reunions and popular genealogy; and museum exhibitions and historical society programs.
More recently, new technologies for data collection, analysis, and access have tremendously expanded our knowledge and spurred a resurgence of interest, particularly about the trade itself, on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the past decade or so, particular attention has been paid to that history as it played out in the North. The New-York Historical Society recently organized a fine three-part exhibition on slavery in New York City and created a permanent galley in response to overwhelming public interest. The Chester County (PA) Historical Society's interactive "Just Over the Line" exhibit on the underground railroad challenged viewers to take a stand relative to laws forbidding assistance to runaway slaves in real-life situations. That exhibit included census data showing the pattern of Philadelphia-area slave ownership. Rhode Island, the colony/state that launched 60 percent of all U.S.-based slave trading expeditions, will host a Freedom Festival this fall. And under pressure from students and civil society groups, universities are beginning to examine their own histories. A committee at Brown University found that the university benefitted indirectly from the slave trade and related industries through financial support; among other initiatives created as a result of the study, Brown has developed a high school curriculum on the slave trade in the Northeast and hosts workshops on the theme.
But even with all the new attention, the recognition of slavery as a national experience, not just a regional one, has been slow in coming. In contrast, commemorations in England last year marking the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade there emphasized the extent to which the trade was ingrained in the economy and affected the lives of ordinary citizens. Similarly, museums on slavery in Liverpool and Bristol show the slave-trade roots of those cities' prosperity.
Traces of the Trade highlights the story of three generations of the De Wolf family who were engaged in the slave trade based in Bristol. Indeed, it was the major part of their business from 1769 to 1820. A strength of the film is that it presents the business' diversification and "vertical integration," qualities that eventually obscured the source of capital and spread economic benefits through the larger society.
The film also points the way to similar searches. The Rhode Island Historical Society (like similar societies in other regions, a critical source of information on the trade), is open to the public. It acquired the De Wolf family papers from 1863 to 1994, began organizing the collection in 1978, and microfilmed it in 2001. The collection -- letters, photographs, business papers, and other artifacts -- is featured in the film. Typical of slave trade research, some of the most revealing documents are court records -- in particular those related to a case in which James De Wolf was charged with throwing overboard a smallpox-infected slave en route from Africa. Such an act was illegal under the laws defining the trade. De Wolf (1764-1837), a member of the middle of the three generations discussed in the film, served as a U.S. senator and was one of the wealthiest men in America. While slavery was the basis of that wealth, the family remained a prominent and influential family after the slave trade was formally abolished by Congress in 1808. (Even then, many traders continued to engage in it, facilitated by the fact that slavery remained legal in much of the hemisphere until 1888, when it was abolished by Brazil, the last country to do so.)
Traces of the Trade will be distributed by California Newsreel, a nonprofit producer/ distributor of social-issue films. With a special focus on racial justice and diversity and the study of African-American life and history, the organization sees the primary market for the film as academic centers and departments -- including those dealing with race; the history of the U.S., Caribbean, and Africa; cultural studies; conflict resolution and peace studies -- and theological seminaries.
"We've been following this film's production over the years and we're eager to help get it out there; race relations is not an easy subject and one that still is a challenge in terms of engaging the general public," says Newsreel's Cornelius Moore. "And while much of the historical information might reside in public archives, access is not always encouraged. We think the film can stir interest and support people who want to uncover the full story of their community's past."
The family members who participate in the film acknowledge that while no trade-based fortune has come to them, the social position of the family gained through that wealth established a platform of privilege that has extended through the generations to benefit nearly all of them. It is that privilege and the question of responsibility that give the film its broader significance. Commenting on the film's success at the council event and the anticipated reception at the council's upcoming meeting of family foundations, David Haas feels the issue of privilege is key. "It's a family saga that I believe will resonate with family foundation members about where to go from here."
