2014 Spring Cleaining
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, revered singer-composer formerly with Sweet Honey in the Rock, came to East Texas to sing with us and celebrate the Ancestors
2014 Spring Cleaining
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, revered singer-composer formerly with Sweet Honey in the Rock, came to East Texas to sing with us and celebrate the Ancestors
In East Texas, an illegal 60-year lockout of
African-Americans from their family burial grounds challenges descendants still.
Here's a taste of our feature length documentary film about the struggle to gain access to Love Cemetery (led by three relentless women). This is a section in progress somewhere about 2/3 into the movie.
Why is this movie important?
We are haunted by the contradictions of our past.
Echoes of slave-holding culture that once thrived in the U.S. and Texas continue in this 21st century story of elders and young people - black and white, Native American heritage and Latino - joining together to reclaim this historic cemetery named Love.
Events need storytellers. The Civil Rights movement succeeded, in part, because the importance of its story was recognized and told in print, photographs, and film, shocking people and catalyzing action once it was known.
Stories can touch the heart. Getting this story into the world can provide a model for a national audience.
It's an Ongoing Struggle
It’s time we reckon with our history, wrestle it to the ground, like Jacob wrestling with the Angel in the Old Testament.
We need to take hold of our contradictory history and refuse to let go until we are given a new understanding of ourselves, one that can be a basis for our future as a country.
Support The Film
We are still in production and are looking for angels to help take us to the finish line!
Please make a tax-deductible donation today
Special Thanks to
Past Donors
Robert Cargill
David Chase
Mary Ford
Jonathon Greenberg
Ruby Wilson
Eva Konisberg
Frances Verhalen and Don Smith
Nancy Kittle
Karen Simsheimer
Drew Dellinger
Paula Kaye
Jackie Magner
Roslyn Bell
Wyna J. Baron
Leah Lamb
Miriam Phillips
Matt Regan
Peter Caneiro
Hope Shaw
Joel Axelrod
Donald O. and Ronald R. Collins
Tracy Gary
Kathy Barry & Bob Burnett
The Book
click on the cover
China Galand with Love Cemetery family descendant Shundrika Love and Archie Rison.
Perspectives on the Film:
"How do we talk about race and honor our history of slavery? Visiting Love Cemetery may be difficult due to the extremely limited access provided by the surrounding landowners, but with your support, we can produce the film, Resurrecting Love, for a national if not international audience. It is vital kindling, lighting the conversations around which we can gather together and engage in healing." [read more]
Danielle Drake Burnette,
Associate Producer
"What’s so exciting about this documentary is that it centers on an obvious and easily understood human dilemma: how we honor the dead. The padlocked gate on the mile and a half long, dirt road to Love Cemetery makes the conflict over access simple and real. We see two women, one black, and one white, take up the struggle of the small aging community ..."[read more]
Lillie Allen,
Founder of "Be Present"
Meet one of our Producers, Aldo Billingslea, a theater professor at Santa Clara University.
Wiley College & East Texas Baptist University students at a Clean-up Event at Love Cemetery.
Something to listen to while reading:
What's New with the Film?
Resurrecting Love will be a feature length documentary film, available for festivals, theatrical and streaming distribution and educational applications by the summer of 2023. We are right now engaging in fundraising efforts to reach that goal.
To finish Resurrecting Love we need to:
1.) add a narration (hopefully voiced by someone like Viola Davis),
2.) clear the rights for the archival footage and music,
3.) professionally mix the sound and color correct the picture,
4.) initiate and secure all legal protections, including a fair use assessment about the use of our materials,
and
4.) do the further outreach necessary to bring large audiences when we finally reach film festivals, theaters, television screens and classrooms.
Creator of the book that launched this film, China Galland, continues to connect with HBCUs around the country in an effort to keep the story and struggle alive.
Now is the time for Resurrecting Love. The issues central in the film are being discussed worldwide. This film is about race, reconciliation and discovering an untold history.
Finally one more excerpt from our movie. The struggle to reopen Love Cemetery is put into a larger, kind of chilling, context.
(Caution: if you are viewing this on a smart phone, you will not see this video. Please reopen this on your computer to see this important excerpt. Thanks.)
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