We Are Free Because of Harriet Tubman is a meditation on resistance, history and nature. Professor Sanchez’s words speak to us today as many in America struggle to find their own liberation. The imagery is meant to heal and aid the viewer in reflection upon the text.
The film was shot on location on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, along the UGRR Trail marked by the state, and in Philadelphia, where Tubman found refuge in a community of Free Blacks and Quakers. Locations include Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Harmony, Maryland. Gilpin Point of the Choptank River, is the location where Africans on their way to freedom met boats and ferries that carried them north. The scenes of the farm, wood shed, pine trees and sunset is located on the land of my ancestors.
We have screened the film at the following Film Festivals: Women of African Descent Film Festival 2020; BlackStar Film Festival 2020; The Lake County Film Festival 2020; San Francisco Documentary Film Festival 2020; Cleveland International Film Festival 2021; Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival 2021.
Cameras: Panasonic GH4 & GH5.
Lenses: 5.8mm, 14mm, 25mm, 42.5mm, and 35-100mm.
Poetry by Sonia Sanchez.
Music by Christian McBride
Cinematography by Stephanie Malson
Producer: Sonia Sanchez Associate Producer: Morani Sanchez
Executive Producers: Catalina Bajenaru, Parris Moore and Marlene G. Patterson
Director/Editor: Nadine Patterson
This project is supported by the Leeway Foundation and individual donors.
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