Join the Academy Center of the Arts in viewing UNMARKED, a film about the thousands of African-American grave sites and burial grounds for enslaved persons that have been disappearing over the years. In Virginia alone, stories of thousands at rest could vanish from history altogether if these locations are not restored and those with personal connections to these burial sites have recently begun to uncover and maintain locations across the state.

The documentary has appeared in nine film festivals, including the New Orleans Film Festival and the Pan African Film Festival and was nominated for a Capital Emmy Award in 2021. The Academy is proud to highlight the efforts of Lynchburg locals, who helped to bring this film to life and to share the significance of this topic through the art of film for Black History Month.

This event will include live performances, poetry, and a panel discussion directly following the film. The panelists include Jerome Preston Bates (host), Brian Palmer (moderator), Chris Haley (co-director), Crystal Rosson (descendant), Brad J. Bennett (co-director), and Murrell Thornhill (co-owner of Tharp Funeral Home).

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Brad Bennett is a Japanese-American filmmaker and Emmy-nominated producer based in Virginia. His first feature documentary, Forgive–Don’t Forget, chronicles the search for a family on the other side of the world in order to return an heirloom taken during World War II. The film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Guam International Film Festival. Forgive–Don’t Forget was acquired by Gravitas Ventures in 2018 and released on Hulu and Amazon. Bennett has been featured in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. He is the Co-director, Producer, and DP for UNMARKED.

Chris Haley is the co-director, archival expert, and co-writer of UNMARKED. As the Director of the Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland at the Maryland State Archives Research Department and the Utopia Film Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland, Mr. Haley has served on many prestigious boards in the world of African American genealogy as well as in the Arts.