Sag Harbor Cinema and the Plain Sight Project presented their 2023 Black History Celebration – Forgetting to Remember on Saturday, February 25.
The event included a screening of “Forgotten Founders: David Hempstead, Senior,” a short-form documentary, directed by local filmmakers Sam Hamilton and Julian Alvarez. The film highlights the life of David Hempstead, Senior on the East End, tracing him from slavery to freedom. Hempstead, Senior’s children were founding members of the Eastville community in Sag Harbor.
The screening was followed by a “Projections” Q&A, featuring the filmmakers alongside Donnamarie Barnes and David Rattray, co-directors of the Plain Sight Project. The talk was moderated by Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan, professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University.
Following the talk was the opening of the Black History exhibition in Sag Harbor Cinema’s Rosenberg Workspace. The exhibition features the work of renowned Sag Harbor artist Michael A. Butler, and thematic rooms that commemorate the legacies and stories of enslaved, indentured, and free people of color on the East End. The exhibit also features state-of-the-art, interactive, digital mapping technology that allows one to trace the locations of enslaved, indentured, and free people of color in Sag Harbor and beyond, developed in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Institute for Spatial Research.