Documentary on GSD Black Deaf Alumni’s segregation experience

Alex (Daily Moth): A team of four people from Georgia are working on creating a documentary about Black Deaf alumni of the Georgia School for the Deaf’s experiences when they were students either pre or post-segregation.

The co-producers are Kristi Merriweather, DeAnna Swope, GSD Alumni June Alsobrook, and Martha Anger.

They have already interviewed over 30 people. Their ages range from the mid 60’s to the late 80’s. Their project was funded by community donations on GoFundMe, which has already exceeded their asking goal of $10,000.

Kristi explained that a part of the inspiration to create the documentary came after she read a book, “The Segregated Georgia School for the Deaf: 1882-1975.” She said although the book had many facts, she felt as if something was missing because the book didn’t include stories that came from Black Deaf alumni.

Kristi said sometime later she had the opportunity to give a presentation in Georgia about Black Deaf History with them asking questions to a panel of GSD alumni, which included June Alsobrook. Kristi said the three panelists’ answers had a profound impact on her.

Kristi Merriweather, Co-Producer: After the PowerPoint presentation and the questions asked, what the panelists said deeply got to me. Okay. After that, my gut feeling told me… People out there needed to know about what we learned that day. But our original plan was to just call three panelists back again and record it, to make it a part of the presentation. That’s it. But when I asked June and explained my idea, she said she can bring about 25 alumni. Really? That could be done? We realized… Why not make this a documentary? All four of us have a common interest in history and strongly believe in the value of revealing hidden experiences in history.

Alex: Kristi said she was connected to Martha Anger through Jade Bryan, a Black Deaf female filmmaker. With Kristi and DeAnna’s passion, June’s experiences and connections with the GSD community, and Martha’s video skills, this project was born.

June said she already had ideas about creating some kind of documentary or book about GSD alumni, and she is grateful to Kristi and DeAnna for helping to make it happen.

June said it is important to film elders before they are gone.

June Alsobrook, Co-Producer and GSD Alumni: It’s important to bring in elders. Before, we had more, but more and more are aging and passing away. We need to take the opportunity to reach out to them.

DeAnna Swope, Co-Producer: I feel it’s important to portray and show the power back to them to share their stories. Now, during the interview process, they were relieved to be able to share their experiences. I already knew, but I didn’t realize how much of an impact that experience had on them. Imagine if they had the chance to open up like that before they’re gone. So, I’m honored to be a part of this project.

The team is giving up their personal free time to invest in the project. They said they have done a lot of driving to meet GSD alumni, sometimes meeting them where they live or picking them up to bring them to a location to film them. Some of the interviews were conducted via Zoom for those who lived out of state. Each interview ranged from 1 hour to 4 hours in length.

Kristi said some of the interviews dealt with very traumatic experiences.

Kristi: We tried to get one person who’s the oldest of all. At first, she agreed, and then she changed her schedule, rescheduled again, and finally, she said she couldn't, because the bad memories were too much. I understand, because we already interviewed other elders, and… I mean, the picture isn’t pretty. We understand different people have different approaches to dealing with negative experiences. We’re not minimizing that. It’s very serious. These experiences were awful. So, we understood.

June: We discussed and agreed on these plans, and some were unsure about some things like who would interview them. I assured them I would be there and that there’s no right or wrong, just their experiences to share, and some agreed. Some didn’t care whether they could be interviewed without me, and some wanted me there to feel comfortable with sharing more.

DeAnna: That’s where we noticed they haven’t been given the opportunity to shift their narrative. Often, in history, our stories have been brushed away or whitewashed… Like Kristi read a book and felt something was missing. The facts need to be heard. We talked about it, and oh… Should we leave it like this? No. We should be assertive. Today, with the BLM movement, and people becoming more attentive such as with the official federal holiday of Juneteenth, it’s a good opportunity to really get them to hear their stories when the documentary is finished. That will help them take accountability for their behavior against them in their past. Some people want to move on and think others shouldn’t be grieving anymore. Yes, there's the saying that time may heal all wounds, but still, there’s deep trauma that can’t ever be healed. You can’t force them to heal right away. They will do that on their own time. Respect that. If they want to share their stories, that’s a beautiful thing and means they trust us enough to open up. Vulnerability is expensive.

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The team said they are very grateful for the community support and donations on GoFundMe, and said they welcome additional donations for the documentary.

DeAnna: I want to take the chance to thank all of you for donating. Without your support, this would not have happened, period. You believed in us enough to be willing to share your hard earned money. Wow. And you are allowing us to do more with what we can do. Before, we thought… How can we achieve it? But you proved to us that good humanity still exists. So, thank you. And for ongoing donations, though you don’t have to, anything small or big, helps us continue the work and we hope you'll be pleased with our final product, whenever that will be.

The team has a goal of completing the documentary by this fall and hope the film will be screened at conferences, schools, universities, and maybe on streaming platforms in the future. They have provided many updates on their GoFundMe page and they said they will continue to do that.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/gsd-black-deaf-alumnis-segregation-experience