On July 15, we hosted a film screening of “Promises of the Revolution” at GBH Studios in Boston. This director’s commentary has been compiled and edited from two panel conversations held that day. Trajan Warren, who moderated the panel discussions, is a reporter with GBH’s Equity & Justice Unit. Evan Goodchild is the director of “Heading Home,” the second film in our series.
TW: Why was it important to tell this story about the American Revolution?
EG: For the building…this is a monumental year. They’ve owned the Jeremiah Lee estate for 100 years. And right next door, people in town have kind of known that that building was a slave quarters, but it’s never been named as such openly, publicly. So, to have that, and to have that town sort of rally around it, there’s a lot of money that needed to be raised to renovate that building. And, as the two folks you saw at the end there, they’re part of the racial justice team [in Marblehead], which is extremely active and is working hand in hand with that museum.
So to step into this project, it was just a blessing to step into something where there’s just so many things happening for people to really share that diverse history with the world.
Trajan Warren (TW): How do these stories focusing on Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, women’s histories, how do they change our understanding of the American Revolution?
Evan Goodchild (EG): I think history in general, it’s just always being written. And specifically this history with the enslaved folks, a lot of it’s new. It’s still new history. There needs to be more scholarship being done.
I’m encouraged that the more you share about this, the more you say, “oh, they found out this from the probate records?” “Oh, they found out this from just cross-referencing this?” All these different places where history can come alive, I think is very exciting.
TW: What inspired your film?
EG: Early on in the conversations with Raeshma, when we were developing the Marblehead project, we had both thought of the town almost as a character itself. So that was a big inspiration to the cinematographer, Zeen Richidi. A lot of the great shots you saw of downtown Marblehead, he was a big part of bringing that to life.
And then once I met Yamanda Wright, the portrait artist, we knew that there was just a strong visual component. And just in general with this work, people inspire me. Lauren McCormack, Donna Cotterell. Serious people who are doing hard work and are passionate and committed. And, understanding all the people that went into what we saw, this momentous occasion of the kitchen and slave quarters opening up, which was long overdue.
TW: What were some ideas or scenes you couldn’t include in the final edit?
EG: Donna was so giving. She gave us a tour of the whole town, and I went out and filmed with her early. [We were in] one of the oldest, maybe the oldest cemetery in New England. She showed us the gravestone of Agnes. This was pre-Revolutionary War. She had a gravestone on the top of the hill with the family that she had worked for. And the racial justice team had been a big part of recreating that because it was stolen. The gravestone was destroyed and stolen. So that was a really poignant scene. That whole piece doesn’t make it. But, you actually hear her voice over at the end. That’s her voice talking about history and how the past informs the present.
TW: What do you hope the audience takes away from each of your films?
EG: Thinking about Yamanda and her portraiture…she has already started work with another museum doing a similar project. That is a valid form of history. She worked with historians to try to figure out what the clothing and the textiles might be. How people’s hair may have been. These are all things that just open up conversations to learn more about history and get people excited about history. And I think art is one of the most powerful gateways for that.
I hope people go to the Marblehead Museum. It’s tremendous, what they do with that space. It’s one of three extant slave quarters in New England. This is living history that they have brought to life. You can feel it as soon as you walk in. As Steven was saying, it’s a complicated history. Yamanda brings you into the history through her portraiture, and then you can kind of flow through it and just find out all these very varied stories of people like Diamond Lee.
TW: The series is titled “Promises of the Revolution.” Which promise, would you say, remains the most urgent for the U.S. to fulfill?
EG: It’s the erasure of our own history. History continues to be written. It needs to be looked at, constantly. Over and over again. The further you get away from something, the more you understand it. It’s maddening to think about Marblehead, saying it’s such a beautiful place in such a rich American place with its American story.
If you want to be myopic and just look at Washington crossing the Delaware, in that image, his chest is so big. That image is unbelievable. If you zoom out, there’s the Marblehead Regiment right there. And it’s a diverse regiment. Indigenous folks, Black soldiers, [Hispanic soldiers]. There’s lots of different people in that that made that happen. So you don’t have to go far to find these stories.
I do some work with UMass Amherst, and I was just part of a 250 conference. Just hearing historian after historian talking about going rogue, not being able to put their research on the web, having to scrub their sites…that erasure is maddening to me. They’re still doing the work, it’s still happening. I think stories like this continue to help with that people power that we need to keep charging.
