About The Filmmakers

George King is a UK national living in Atlanta in the southeast United States. As a writer/producer/director of nonfiction film, television radio, and theater projects, his work has consistently won national and international acclaim (Peabody, Cine Golden Eagles, Golden Reels, nominated for Prix Italia, etc.) and garnered revues in the U.S. national and regional press (CNN, NYT, L.A Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal/Constitution, etc.). He has also taught film, video, and radio production on the faculty of colleges and universities and through workshops in Europe, Asia and the United States.

George’s work addresses diverse subjects such as race, civil rights, art & culture, the environment, labor, education, poverty, housing, and community development. He has always involved broad community participation to ensure the work accurately reflects historical and cultural truths. In this documentary, in addition to community focus groups, George also worked closely with a core team of African American colleagues including among others, artist and activist Charmaine Minniefield, scholar and musician Mausiki Scales, sociologist Kali-Ahset Amen, and filmmakers Sam Pollard and Lewis Erskine.

Charmaine is a visual artist, activist and arts administrator (High Museum, National Black Arts Festival) and a recent faculty member of Atlanta’s Spelman College. Charmaine’s visual art draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora. Her community-based initiative, The New Freedom Project, seeks to preserve black narratives by creating public art in communities affected by gentrification and erasure. She has recently returned from a year in The Gambia researching the traditions of Praise Houses and ring shouts in relation to her work in the southeast United States.

Charmaine served as a co-producer reviewing cuts of the film and facilitating interviews with African American cultural commentators who’s role in the film provides context for Lonnie’s visual art and music.

Amy edited producer King’s enduringly-popular 2000 film, Goin’ to Chicago, with Sam Pollard also serving as consultant editor. She has edited numerous award-winning films including Julie Dash’s landmark Daughters of the Dust, a Sundance winner which had the honor of being selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. Amy continued her collaboration with Julie Dash on projects for Showtime and PBS. In her 30+ year career, she has worked on dozens of narrative features, music videos, and documentaries, including: The Adventures of Ociee Nash, Academy Award nominee Building Bombs, and David Zeiger’s P.O.V. film, The Band. As a 20 year partner in Willow Pond Films, she has collaborated with Peter Miller as editor of The Internationale, editor and producer of Sacco and Vanzetti, editor and associate producer of Jews and Baseball, which won the award for best editing at the Breckenridge Festival of Film, AKA Doc Pomus, and the 2018 American Masters film on choral music legend Robert Shaw – Man of Many Voices, which won 3 Emmys. Amy is a member of American Cinema Editors, The Producers Guild of America, has won numbers of Promax awards for editing promos and trailers for dozens of networks and films, and is an editing and music consultant for documentaries and dramatic films. 

Sam Pollard, who served as story editor, and the late Lewis Erskine, editor, also contributed greatly to the making of this documentary film.