Virginia Film Festival

Filmmaker Jon Sesrie-Goff travels to his minister father’s birthplace in Coastal South Carolina in the aftermath of a mass shooting at his church in Charleston in this beautifully layered and expressionistic documentary.

Through a poetic patchwork of family home video, archival footage, and footage highlighting the region’s natural beauty, Goff raises questions about what it means to be connected to a particular place while exposing the false promises that have forced so many Black residents away from their homes and land for centuries. Powerful and intimate conversations with family members and neighbors paint a fascinating picture of a specific community while examining the legacies of racial trauma and violence that reverberate across America.

Introduction by Ravi Respeto (United Way of Greater Charlottesville)