Umma Chroma Creative Partners
International African American Museum Presents
Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story"
A film by Julie Dash
(15 min., USA 2023)
Languages: English, Luba, Indigenous American
PDF PressKit
“SEEKING: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story” follows Gullah Geechee children as spiritual travelers in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, guided by ancestral maps and living landscapes to claim collective memory, survival, and continuity at a pivotal moment of change in 1966.
In the hushed darkness before dawn, when the sea island mist clings to ancient live oaks and the salt marsh whispers secrets older than memory, Gullah Geechee children stand at the threshold between childhood and something deeper, something ancestral. “SEEKING: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story” is a luminous meditation on heritage, courage, and the sacred journey toward self-knowledge—a cinematic short film, photographed by Bradford Young, that honors the profound coming-of-age traditions of the Gullah Geechee people.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee Story” begins in the Gullah Geechee Corridor of coastal South Carolina and Georgia, where the land serves as a living archive of African retention and Black survival. Among Sea Islanders, “Seeking” is a ritual rite of passage marking a child’s movement toward spiritual and ancestral awareness.
The work centers children as spiritual travelers guided by ancient maps: the North Star, coded symbols carved into rock and bark and sewn into patchwork quilts; and beads and shells from African Lukasa memory devices and Indigenous Wampum belts. Found objects, such as metal badges once worn by enslaved workers, echo the regulated movement, resilience, and endurance of those laborers. A 500-year-old live oak and ancient tabby ruins built from oyster shell and forced labor stand as witnesses.
Set in 1966, at a moment of profound change, Seeking invites audiences to recognize shared memory and consider what it means to remain rooted in tradition while moving forward.
– Julie Dash
Writer, Director, Co-Producer Julie Dash (D.G.A), (AMPAS) creates work that moves through film, video, and museum installations as a sustained meditation on social justice, diasporic memory, migration, and the interior lives of Black women. Julie first reshaped the cinematic landscape with Daughters of the Dust, her Sundance Award–winning film (Best Cinematography, 1991), becoming the first African American woman to secure a wide theatrical release for a feature film (1992). In this same connection, Dash was awarded Joseph R. Biden’s President’s 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifelong commitment to advancing Gullah Geechee traditions and culture. Dash has directed televisions episodes of Queen Sugar, Women of the Movement, Our Kind of People and Reasonable Doubt; her long form narrative dramas include Subway Stories: Tales of the Underground, The Rosa Parks Story, Funny Valentines, Love Song, and Incognito. Dash has several early films on her Criterion Collections channel
Cinematographer, Bradford Young (A.S.C), is best known for his work on the films Selma, A Most Violent Year (both 2014), Arrival(2016)—which earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), as well as the Netflix miniseries When They See Us (2019). Young’s early feature film credits as cinematographer include Mississippi Damned (2009), Pariah (2011), Restless City (2011), Middle of Nowhere (2012), Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), and Mother of George (2013). He has won the Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival twice. In 2011, he won for his work on Pariah. Two years later, he won for his work on both Mother of George and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. He was the cinematographer for Selma (2014), which won the BET Award for Best Movie in 2015. That same year, Bradford Young was inducted into the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).
Larry Yazzie (role: Native American Teacher, Deerhunter) is best known as an actor for the tv series Django, and films “Coyotaje,” “No Blood of Mine,” and the upcoming feature “Ghost Warrior.” Larry Yazzie is the Founder and Artistic Director of Native Pride Productions which is based in Jacksonville, FL. and recently performed during the 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jamir Vega (role: Gullah Boy Seeker, African Child #1) Jamir Vega is best knownfor “Women of the Movement,” “Tom Swift,” “The Wonder Years,” “Teenage Bounty Hunters” and “American Solitaire” IMDB Credits
Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (role: Luba Initiator) next appears in Ron Howard’supcoming “Alone at Dawn” and stars opposite Taron Egerton in the AppleTV series “Smoke.” Mwine also stars opposite Michael C. Hall in the Paramount+/Showtime series “Dexter: Resurrection.”.
Mwine previously starred opposite Rachel Weisz in series “Dead Ringers,” on Amazon, based on David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller. Mwine also played Detective Raymond Griggs in the Netflix hit series “The Lincoln Lawyer,” based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels.
Rachel Watanabe-Batton, Contradiction and Struggle
Rachel Watanabe-Batton (Producer) is an award-winning producer whose work bridges cinema, museums, and cultural institutions. She has collaborated extensively with filmmaker Julie Dash. Watanabe-Batton has also produced award-recognized narrative and documentary work for major platforms, including Sneakerella for Disney+, and served as Consulting Producer on the EPIX docu-series By Whatever Means Necessary, which received the NAACP Award for Outstanding Directing in a Documentary. Across her career, she has demonstrated a sustained commitment to inclusive storytelling and public engagement—making her work especially well suited to curated screenings, museum programs, and community-centered presentations. For a full list of credits, please see IMDB.
UMMAH CHROMA CREATIVES
Mishka Brown (Producer, Umma Chroma Creative Partners) is an independent filmmaker whose work spans documentaries and narrative features and short form museum pieces. Recent projects include NUMBER ONE ON THE CALL SHEET a documentary feature about Black leading women in Hollywood, directed by Shola Lynch. NEW BLUE SUN (LISTENING) a feature length visual album accompaniment (Epic Records 2023 / Terence Nance), UNFINISHED BUSINESS a documentary chronicling the first 25 years of the WNBA (Tribeca Film Festival 2022, director Alison Klayman) and SHE PARADISE, a coming-of-age film from Trinidad (Tribeca Film Festival 2021, distributed by Goldwyn Films). Upcoming projects include WINNING AGAINST TIME: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE (Springhill / director Tiffany McNeil), UNTITLED ANDRE 3000 DOCUMENTARY (director Terence Nance).
(Editor) Melissa Huffsmith-Roth is an accomplished film editor and multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in New York City. Her film collaborations have screened at festivals and museums all over the world, most recently at MOMA.
Akin McKenzie, Production Design
Emmeline Wilks-Dupoise, Art Director
David Zambrana, Costumes
Rebecca Spiro and Gino Fortebuono, Prop Masters
Ron Tucker, Locations Manager
Winsome Sinclair, Casting
Rebecca Tucker, Casting
Tamar-Kali, Composer
Seika Paradeis, Co-Producer
Peter Wentworth, Line Producer
Melissa Huffsmith-Roth Editor
Stefanie Saintonge, Post Edit
John Loughlin, Visual Effects Director
Stacy Gray, Key Hairstylist
Lisa P. Jones, Key Make-up Artist
Post Finishing provided by Harbor Pictures with special thanks to Rochelle Brown.
Film Website designed by Floyd Webb.
