Genre
Synopsis
After escaping slavery in 1842, George finds safety and purpose - along with important clues as to his family's whereabouts - at an Abolitionist commune in Western Massachusetts. Despite its grand intentions, the commune strives to stay afloat when its silk production (made to boycott cotton) can't provide reliable income. And while George finds the commune awe-inspiring in many ways, he also feels the sting of unintended slights and presumptions from many of its mostly-white members.
Tensions mount when some members propose transitioning to a socialist economy as a way of solving their failing finances; but when a flood wipes out the farm's last food reserves, the community is tested beyond its limit. George risks his life to save the silk barn from the flood, only to discover that Benson - the founder of the commune - has covertly sold the property to a cotton manufacturer to save his family's personal investments. Still recovering from grave injury, George bravely calls out Benson's harsh betrayal and ultimately surprises even himself with his power.
Bio
Erica Fae brings radical stories from history onto the stage and screen. Her first feature film as writer/director/producer/actor, To Keep the Light (on a woman lighthouse keeper in the 1860s), was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize (International Critics’ Prize/Mannheim), Best Director (Berlin Indp), Best of Show (BendFilm), Best Emerging Director (St. Louis Int’l), 2 Best Narrative Feature Awards (Ojai and Port Townsend), and 2 Best Cinematography Awards (Woods Hole & Las Vegas). It also screened at Vancouver Int’l Film Fest, and was nominated for festival prizes at Woodstock, Florida, Nashville, New Hampshire, Filmfest DC, and Salento (Italy). She also won Best Short and Best Actress prizes for her short, Christine 1403; and her play, Take What Is Yours (on suffragist Alice Paul) was named a Critics’ Pick in The New York Times and Backstage. Her recent play, Saved Again and by Him - based on and interrogating Sarah Wakefield's 1860 memoir from the Dakota Uprising - premiered at the New Ohio, NYC. She is on the acting faculty at the Yale School of Drama (now David Geffen School of Drama at Yale), has taught Directing Actors at Columbia's Grad Film Program and The Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (Germany). She wrote on Directing Actors for Filmmaker Magazine, and was a guest panelist at Sundance on filmmaking and social justice. To Keep the Light is distributed by Gravitas (US/Canada) and Flix Premiere (UK/France), and is available on Amazon Prime.
Credits
Actor - Ato Blankson-Wood
Actor - Louisa Jacobson
