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Title: Speakers for the dead Rating: 2.9 out of 4 Reference: Director, Jennifer Holness & David
Sutherland; producer, Peter Starr. Abstract: The Old Durham Road Pioneer Cemetery in Priceville, Opntario, burial ground of the area’s original black settlers, lay for many years hidden under a farmer’s potato field. In the 1980’s, descendants, both black and white, begin to restore the cemetery. As the work progresses, new evidence, residents’ memories, and a decision to dig in the cemetery to search for grave stones, divide the community. Now everyone must come to terms with this hidden history. Sociology subjects: Reviews and Numerical Ratings (3.5) This is a fascinating video which brings up
all sorts of complex issues regarding racism, identity, history, and
the construction of reality. I liked that it didn’t try to simplify
the situation, and that it contained both a historical aspect of race
relations in Ontario, along with a current (1) This Canadian film questions the foundation of many racist claims by uncovering the misplaced black history of a particular town in Northern Ontario. It also reveals the undercover racism that permeates Canadian society. The story of this town also alludes to the arbitrary nature of private property. Although this film indirectly touches on many important topics it focuses mainly on community members’ futile efforts to retrieve lost grave stones, which leads me to think: how are these grave stones really going to change anything? The film also adopts a sort of ‘Blair Witch’ cinematography that is spooky at times. Sarah Newman (3) I felt that this video was a really good example of ways that minority individuals & groups are excluded & silenced in their histories & experiences by the dominant group/cause. Also, to take it a step further, the video shows how knowledge can be perspectival, fabricated, manipulated by one group for the sake of denying another’s identity and personhood. I was also able to connect with the film and really understand the stories of the Blacks and the ways in which they were denied; part of why I felt connected is because I was able to empathize and, more than anything, I was intrigued by the way the committee working to restore the cemetery came together as a way to reconnect with the past. To me, this was a way to bring life to their history and to legacy that was lost. The whole story, in a sense, brought light to the actual title: at first I was kind of confused, not sure of what I was watching, but then I came to understand that through their organized efforts the committee was speaking on behalf of the dead, of history, of a people who were silenced. I really liked that. At the end, one speaker said something very powerful: if we were to see Priceville on a larger scale and include every minority group that has been excluded, then how much of our “history” can we really see to be true? That links back to the idea that history is fabricated and involves truth claims, which is an alternative way of thinking about history. It’s a good example of something that we, as sociologists, need to deconstruct. That was the most powerful point of the video. Marsha McQueen (undergraduate) (4) This video escapes the “Bob has a problem,
what will he do?” format, to focus instead on mesmerizing issues
of community history and activism. Besides in courses on racism, this
would be an outstanding video to show in methods courses dealing with
oral history, as questions about how histories are constructed &
obliterated, and how to get oral history participants to speak as frankly
as these do, could be taken up. Kathy Bischoping About the project | Book a video for class | Enter the Library Catalogue | Send us feedback | Back to main |
