Telling the Story of Slaver

Telling the Story of Slavery is a short documentary film about the first museum in America dedicated to exploring the legacies of slavery. Discussing the legacy of slavery in America is still a complex and difficult conversation to have. How do we confront this horrible and defining period of our shared history? This is a film about a place that is attempting to do just that: The Whitney Plantation. It's a former plantation founded in 1752 and located in Louisiana along the historic River Road, which winds down the Mississippi towards New Orleans. John Cummings, a lawyer who founded the museum, spent sixteen years planning and over eight million dollars of his own money to restore this site, which honors the memory of those who were enslaved on plantations and whose labor helped build this country. The Whitney Plantation is not a place designed to make people feel guilt, or to make people feel shame. It is a site of memory, a place that exists to further the necessary dialogue about race in America. This is a film about this place, its founders, and how it is helping America understand it's most unpleasant past. (Big Sky Documentary Film Festival)