Virginia Film Festival

Screens before A Conversation with Kwaku Alston

I was inspired to create Alone while processing the loss of my community and neighborhood from the devastating Woolsey Fires.  Displaced, unable to call anywhere home, and suffering from severe survivor’s guilt, I was unsure for the first time about my future and where my family could live.  Everywhere I looked, I saw ashes and darkness, a suffering community in pain.

During this time, I deeply resonated with Maya Angelou’s poem “Alone.” Her words propelled me into creating a short film.  Alone was born out of this place of despair and isolation and was an effort to create a piece of art to help my soul heal.

In Alone, we are faced with the dire consequences of humankind creating an unsustainable world.  Our harmful actions and inability to change has initiated cataclysmic destruction—a product of ignoring our responsibilities as stewards of the earth.  We have been enslaved by materialism, an effective tool to keep us distracted and ignorant while those at the top continue to disrespect Mother Nature, plundering all of her resources until she is barren and unable to gift future life.

The survival of our species can only be set free through knowledge and understanding of who we really are: kindred spirits locked in time and space.

Words by Maya Angelou

Discussion with director Kwaku Alston and actor Rodney Charles, moderated by Michelle Jackson (VAFF)