Ghana Conference on Film

A two-disc DVD set drawn from the Institute’s 2007 conference in Ghana is now available for purchase. “The bloody Writing is for ever torn” captures the experience of holding a conference on the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in West African locations from which 1.8 million enslaved people were exported to the Americas and the Caribbean between 1500 and 1867. This visual record, produced at the request of the conference’s most generous sponsor, Richard Gilder, premiered at the New York Historical Society on October 21, 2008, and has since received three awards—a platinum AVA, a gold AURORA, and an AEGIS— for excellence in audiovisual production.

The second disc, The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Origins, Effects, and Legacies, is specifically designed for classroom use. Combining excerpts from the conference’s papers, commentaries, and discussions with dramatic illustrations, this film highlights several of the major themes that emerged from the proceedings. A printed guide included in the package sets the material in context. For early reactions by scholars, see http://oieahc.wm.edu/uncommon/126/ghana.cfm.

Free to Associates of the Institute giving at the Sustaining, Conserving, Patron, or Benefactor level ($250 or above), the DVD set is priced at $59.95 for non-Associates and $49.95 for Associates who are Student, Regular, Contributing, Perpetuating, and Supporting members. To order, see http://oieahc.wm.edu/conferences/ghana/buyvideo.cfm. The Institute will apply all proceeds from the DVD set to funding the African Reading and Research Seminar scheduled to take place July 12–26, 2009, in Accra, Ghana. Full details about the seminar, which aims to build upon the connections begun at the 2007 conference, can be found at http://oieahc.wm.edu/uncommon/126/workshop.cfm.