Three Black Men Documentary Film
From Project to Film
From the beginning of this project, we envisioned creating a film. Filmmaker Sienna McLean LoGreco, Director of Photography Tony Hardmon and their team joined us on all three continents, gathering compelling footage of this unique journey, and the documentary film is now in production.
Overview
This film follows three visionary Black men as they search, retrace and explore themes of community, family, spirituality, as well as reflect on Blackness—how it feeds us, shapes us, inspires us, births us—in community with others.
Please enjoy this early teaser reel:
Why this film now?
This is a vital story to tell at this moment. The film offers a vision of healing which deconstructs narrow conceptions of Blackness in order to uncover the beauty, wholeness and vibrancy that live underneath those projections.
“Blackness is the invitation to consider that the world is still being made.”
— Bayo Akomolafe
In the documentary, we get to know each of the three men—how they move as community leaders, as well as their personal stories and who they are as people. As the film unfolds, we engage with the men and community members through rituals and other spiritual practices, encountering history and place, honoring the ancestors, and delving into shared inquiry and necessary conversations.
“This journey is for any person interested in being part of a collective shift toward realizing new futures and ways of being.”
— Orland Bishop
In Salvador, our team was spiritually anchored by a historic Candomblé temple—Ilé Àṣẹ Ìyá Nasò Ọka, or CasaBranca—led by three Black women elders, and founded in the 1800s by three free African women. It was clear that the ocean-deep resilience of these Afro-Brazilian communities is sustained by the deep remembering held by these practitioners. This fed into our evolving sense of how cultural containers can carry multigenerational medicine. We saw this as well in a Quilombo community we visited. (Quilombos took shape as groups of enslaved Africans escaped to form free communities in remote forests and mountains. These settlements actively resisted slavery and preserved African traditions, passing them through the generations.)
Join a wave of healing that is sweeping across three continents. Support powerful storytelling and the spread of these inspirational stories so thousands can experience their transformative impact. This is your time to invest in our collective liberation.
To discuss your donation or for other questions, please contact The Center For Healing and Liberation Director Victoria Santos at vsantos@commonweal.org
Meet The Director
Director Sienna McLean LoGreco
A biracial documentary filmmaker whose film Still Revolutionaries, about women in the Black Panther Party, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was awarded first prize for best documentary at the NextFrame International Film Festival, and continues to be distributed internationally. She’s earned credits as a writer, director, and producer for HBO, Showtime, A+E, VH1, Discovery, and Animal Planet. She is the director/producer of This New Life, an independent documentary following four refugee families resettled in Northern Vermont from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sudan and Somalia.
Film Production/Post Production Schedule.
January–March 2024:
Organize the film from the visits to Los Angeles, United States; Bahia, Brazil; and Ghana, Africa.
Produce a sizzle reel and shorter versions of it.
April-June 2024:
Film Resmaa Menakem, Orland Bishop, and Báyò Akómoláfé in their home and work spaces.
July-December 2024:
Begin post-production, delivering a series of rough cuts, with a full picture look by the end of the year.
The team will complete the final color correction and audio mixing, and will aim to deliver the master film by the end of February 2025.
Marketing & Distribution
We intend to promote the film through online and community channels, including podcasts, online publications, and at organizational and community events. We will publicize the film through our team’s global networks of practitioners, creators and change-makers.
The documentary will be a catalyst as we invite viewers to actively engage in creative explorations, healing practices and change-making work in their own communities. We will also invite viewers to participate in events and emergent opportunities through the ongoing work of Resmaa, Bayo, Orland and the Center for Healing and Liberation.
