Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival’s kicked off Friday night with documentary film Descendant, from Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, and the former President and First Lady were the opening night’s surprise guests.
Directed by Margaret Brown, Descendant, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to illegally transport human beings as cargo from Africa to America.
When the film was initially introduced by festival founders Stephanie and Floyd Rance, they brought out the director, who introduced Oscar winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. He spoke briefly before inviting his “friends” on stage. Those friends happened to be the Obamas who have a home in Martha’s Vineyard.
For nearly 15 minutes, the former president and first lady held the audience’s attention as they preached the importance of uncovering untold history and their aim to support projects that do just that, like “Descendant,” through their Higher Ground banner.
“When we screened this… we looked at it and immediately thought, ‘This is why we’re doing Higher Ground.’ Because what we know about our history as Black people, we don’t talk about nothing. We can’t get anything out of our elders, can we? We don’t know anything,” Michelle said. “Our mothers don’t talk about menopause, nobody knows about why grandma and grandpa got divorced. We just don’t talk. And there’s a lot of psychology around that, but what this film reminds us of is the power that our stories have. And we have to tell that truth.”
Michelle added, “We have to tell our stories to our younger folks. We have to be the ones, we cannot follow that tradition of keeping our pain silent, because what this film shows us is our stories are the power that makes us seen. And I also thought, this could be the beginning of a storytelling process, because guess what we have?
We have phones, everybody’s using them. And we need to encourage our young people to reach out to the elders that are existing. And instead of taking photos of your food, or in addition to taking photos of your food and the latest TikTok whatever it is, how about talking to grandma and great-grandma and asking them some of those questions.”
They also made a couple of cracks about Martha’s Vineyard being their vacation home. After being introduced by “Descendant” executive producer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Michelle approached the mic and said, “Surprise!” she praised the festival’s founders, Floyd and Stephanie Rance, and joked that they don’t get to come to the event often because they “create a commotion.”
And when someone yelled to Barack that they wanted him back in the White House, he remarked that if he did that, he couldn’t spend a month on the island. But Barack’s speech soon turned serious as he reflected on the importance of being a part of telling the story of Africatown.
Next, President Obama spoke to the crowd about why it’s essential that the descendants of the Clotilda and their stories are heard.
“This documentary captures an important chapter in our history—one that’s too often distorted, forgotten, or buried.” He then addressed the subject of the documentary, Africatown and why they aim to connect with their past.
“For the people of Africatown this represented a story of pain and extraordinary hardship, but also a story of strength, resilience, and overcoming.”
Kyle Martin, Essie Chambers and Brown produced the project. Executive producers are Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann; Kate Hurwitz of Cinetic Media; Two One Five Entertainment’s Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, Shawn Gee and Zarah Zohlman.
