Hidden Town: Short Documentaries on Slavery in Salem

Explore the history of slavery in Salem and its aftermaths through six short documentaries written, filmed, and edited by Wake Forest students. These films focus on Anna Maria Samuel, Christina Bass, Christian David, Elias Vogler, Francis Fries, and Triad Cultural Arts’ Shotgun House. Students created this work as part of Old Salem Museums & Gardens’ Hidden Town Project: an initiative to research the repressed history of the enslaved Africans and African Americans who lived in what we now call “Old Salem” and to make that research visible in our local community. These productions were also supported by collaboration with the Creative Corridors Coalition, the Moravian Archives, MUSE Winston-Salem, Salem Academy and College, and Triad Cultural Arts. Students and community partners who helped create these films will be introduced throughout the program.

Sponsored by The Studio for Digital Innovation and ZSR Special Collections & Archives, this screening will celebrate the preservation of these documentaries in the WakeSpace Digital Archive.