Event Details
They were high school classmates in 1965, one Black, one white. Jimmie transferred his senior year from an all-Black high school to an affluent white high school in Charlotte – he was their first Black football star. That decision swept him into one of North Carolina’s most volatile civil rights cases, played out at the explosive intersection of football and race. De watched that case unfold and wrote about it in his college essay application. He said it got him into Harvard. Decades later, a shocking discovery reveals secrets buried in church records that would change their lives. Their story, rooted in the South, is also America’s story – one of slavery’s legacy and our current racial divide. It’s a story of healing and shows a way forward as Jimmie and De explore their binding truth.
Guests
Louise Woehrle, Director/Producer
Director/producer Louise Woehrle, owner of Whirlygig Productions, is a passionate storyteller whose mission is to shine a light on stories that need to be told, with the hope they will inspire us to see ourselves and others in new ways, promote healing, and connect us as human beings.
Early in her career, Louise served as executive producer for the Regional Emmy-award-winning short dramatic film Grandfather’s Birthday. Since then, with over twenty-five years of experience, her various feature documentary projects represent human stories that are culturally diverse with a global reach. They include Stalag Luft III-One Man’s Story, Pride of Lions, The Pathway, BUSHIDO, and Sweet Blood. They have received awards, aired on broadcast television, and woven their way through several nonprofits, educational institutions, and organizations.
Her new documentary film, A Binding Truth, is being honored with awards and special screenings with facilitated discussion. It serves as a catalyst for meaningful conversations about Race and will air on PBS with a national roll-out in early 2025.
Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Adirondack Diversity Initiative Director
Tiffany Rea-Fisher is the director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative. Tiffany has earned recognition for her role as a performing artist, community organizer and direct action activist. She was awarded a citation from the City of New York for her cultural contributions to the field.
Tiffany is the first woman of color to serve as director of the Lake Placid School of Dance, where she has helped increase class participation and faculty diversity since 2017. During this period, she also improved funding support, audience engagement and community impact for EMERGE125, a dance company focused on performance, education and social justice. Approaching her Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) work through an art and culture lens, Tiffany uses positive disruption through inclusion as a way to influence her work.
Martha Swan, John Brown Lives Founder/Executive Director
Martha Swan is the founder and Executive Director of the freedom education and human rights project John Brown Lives!
Since 1999, she has led the organization in engaging communities, using the arts and education, advocacy and activism, in excavating the useful legacies of the past to inform and inspire principled and effective civic action to address urgent issues today. Before retiring in 2021, she taught Spanish, and some French, in Adirondack schools for over twenty years. She lives in the Champlain Valley with her beloved Vito and their critters.
Allison Heard, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, SUNY Plattsburgh
Allison Heard serves as the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SUNY Plattsburgh. As the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Allison Heard provides the leadership for equity-minded and inclusive cultural programming, practices, and policies on campus. Allison’s office provides oversight for Affirmative Action and Special Programs, Title IX Coordination, academic success coaching for multicultural students, and campus programs coordinated through the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Allison is also a Board Member of Shine On, which is a preventive program that provides programming which is available to youth in Plattsburgh and the neighboring Clinton, Franklin, and Essex counties. Shine On provides programming designed to increase resiliency, self-esteem and confidence in elementary-school children, aiming to reduce negative mental health issues before these students reach middle school. Allison is a member of Plattsburgh Noon Rotary and provides coordination for SUNY Plattsburgh’s Interfaith Alliance.
Sara Hamilton, Development Executive, Catalyst Story Institute & GREENLIT.XYZ
SARA HAMILTON is a development executive, producer and consultant with 25+ years of experience in film and media, marketing and branding, strategy and business development. She has worked with teams around the world — from Fortune 500 companies to independent start-ups — to develop and produce innovative, impactful, award-winning marketing communication campaigns, corporate and commercial video productions, and narrative and documentary series and features — including “TIME ZERO: The Last Year of Polaroid Film”, which won awards for best documentary, screened at AFI Docs, DOC NYC and festivals around the world, and is in international distribution and on major streaming platforms.
As an independent consultant, Sara works with filmmakers, studios, businesses, film commissions, organizations and non-profits to create meaningful and successful partnerships. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer for Riveting River Entertainment, an Executive Producer with the global entertainment financial and packaging firm Filmojy, and on the development team of the innovative operating system for film development, financing and production, GREENLIT.xyz.
Sara also leads Partnerships & Development for Catalyst Story Institute, where she fosters connections within the industry, curates and moderates panels and workshops for festivals, leads the year-round Virtual Institute and works with colleagues and Institute partners to educate and inspire independent content creators.
Sara is a dedicated advocate for the production industry, serving on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Film Alliance and FilmNorth, and the Board of Advisors for EntertainMint, a collaborative platform for independent content creators. She also devotes time to several nonprofit organizations around the world.
Partner
Awards & Nominations
2023 “Audience Award Best Documentary” – Twin Cities Film Fest.
2023 “Founders Award” Winner – International Black Film Festival
2023 “Best Documentary” Finalist – Twin Cities Film Fest,
2023 “Best Feature Documentary” Finalist – Richard Harris International Film Festival
2023 “Best Feature Documentary” Semi-Finalist – Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival
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