Department of Communication Assistant Professor Roslin Smith and junior Video Production major Sarah Pietras will both be honored at the Niagara Film Festival for the short film titled “A Day in the Life of a Whiteboard” and the 30 minute documentary, “Priscilla's Legacy.”
Starting out as a project, “A Day in the Life of a Whiteboard” was created by Ms. Pietras as part of the 354 Video Field Production class taught by Ms. Smith. The stop-motion piece depicts how a whiteboard can take an ordinary “to-do” list and bring it to life. The screening for the film will take place on Tuesday, April 14 at 10 p.m. at the Riviera Theater in Buffalo.
After shooting in Sierra Leone, Rhode Island and South Carolina over a seven year period, taking Smith an additional two years to edit, “Priscilla’s Legacy” captures the life of a 10-year-old girl sold into slavery in the late 1700s from her home in Sierra Leone. As cargo on an American slave ship, she endured a treacherous, 10-week voyage across the Atlantic to Charleston, S.C. She was purchased by Elias Ball, the owner of Comingtee Plantation. For the next 55 years, she worked as a slave in the plantation rice fields. The brave little girl was given an English name – Priscilla. Thomalind Martin Polite, Priscilla’s seventh generation granddaughter, journeyed to her ancestral homeland to bring the spirit of the stolen child home. Ms. Polite and her family are Priscilla’s legacy. The film received the Best Regional Short award at the Charleston Film Festival 2014, and it will be screened on Saturday, April 17 at 2 p.m. at the Buffalo Suzuki Strings Theater.
