Description |
1 online resource (1 video file (approximately 52 min.)) : sound, color with black and white sequences |
Series |
Black studies in video |
Contents |
A Story of Memory (2:32) -- Music in Harris Neck, 1931 (2:53) -- The Gullah Connection (3:12) -- Welcome Home Gullahs (2:52) -- Origin's of Amelia's Song (2:47) -- A Song of Ancestry, Senehun Ngola, 1989 (3:42) -- Completing the Puzzle of Amelia Dawley's Song (4:56) -- End of the Tenjami Ceremony (1:57) -- Mende Song in America (2:07) -- Tracing Silent History (2:25) -- Price of War in Africa (2:32) -- Beyond the Pain (3:04) -- Getting to Know Sierra Leon (2:22) -- Walls of Pain and Sorrow in Africa (4:17) -- United by an Ancient African Song (5:19) -- Memory is Power (3:27) -- Credits: The Language You Cry In (0:58) |
Summary |
Spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, this program recounts the remarkable saga of how a nursery rhyme sung by the Gullah people of present-day Georgia was confirmed to be of African origin. When 18th-century slavers sent human cargo from Sierra Leone to America's coastal South, they also sent a trove of cultural information that had been passed from Mende mothers to their daughters for generations--including a particular song that had been carefully preserved because it was used in funeral rites. With the help of anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, linguists, and the singers themselves, the nonsense lyrics of the song found in Georgia were identified as those of the Mende dirge |
Notes |
"This documentary is based on research conducted by Joseph Opala, anthropologist, Cynthia Schmidt, ethnomusicologist and Tazieff Koroma, linguist."--Credits |
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Streaming video, subdivided into smaller segments (total time: 52 min.) |
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Originally produced as a documentary film in 1998 |
Credits |
Camera and steadycam, Aníbal Landázuri ; editors, A. Landázuri, A. Serrano, A. Toepke ; original music, Leandro Sevilla, Marcelo Masciadri |
Performer |
Narrator, Vertamae Grosvenor |
Notes |
In English and Mende; with English subtitles for Mende dialogue; closed-captioned in English |
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MPAA rating: Not rated |
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New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, Best Family History Documentary, 1998 |
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Online resource; title from title screen (Infobase, viewed May 26, 2021) |
Subject |
Mende (African people)
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African Americans -- Race identity.
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African Americans -- Georgia.
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Funeral rites and ceremonies -- Sierra Leone
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Ethnomusicology -- Sierra Leone
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Burial -- Sierra Leone
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Folk songs, Mende.
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Gullahs -- Music
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Funeral rites and ceremonies.
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African Americans.
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African Americans -- Race identity.
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Burial.
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Ethnomusicology.
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Folk songs, Mende.
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Gullahs.
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Mende (African people)
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SUBJECT |
Sierra Leone -- Music
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Subject |
Georgia.
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Sierra Leone.
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Genre/Form |
Ethnographic films.
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Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
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Feature films.
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Internet videos.
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Documentary films.
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Nonfiction films
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Music.
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Ethnographic films.
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Documentary films.
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Feature films.
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Nonfiction films.
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Internet videos.
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Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
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Films ethnographiques.
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Documentaires.
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Films autres que de fiction.
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Vidéos sur Internet.
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Vidéos pour personnes handicapées auditives.
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Form |
Streaming video
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Author |
Serrano, Angel (Film producer), film director, film producer, editor of moving image work.
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Toepke, Alvaro, film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor of moving image work.
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Opala, Joseph, researcher.
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Schmidt, Cynthia E., researcher.
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Koroma, Tazieff, researcher
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Smart-Grosvenor, Vertamae, narrator.
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Landázuri, Aníbal, editor of moving image work, director of photography
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Sevilla, Leandro, composer (expression)
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Masciadri, Marcelo, composer (expression)
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Inko Producciones, production company.
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Universidad de Alicante. Taller de Imagen, production company.
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California Newsreel (Firm), publisher.
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