The ChasDOC Film Society
presents
"Bin Yah: There's no place like home"
a feature film documentary

Bin  - [Orig: Gullah, for 'been'], to occupy a position, exist, live
Yah - [Orig: Gullah for 'here'], in this spot, locality

Charleston screenings:

June 7, 2007 private screening
June 8 -  2 showings, Laing Middle School, Mount Pleasant
June 9 - 2 showings, Laing Middle School, Mount Pleasant
Mid June (tba) Downtown Charleston

An all volunteer effort, "Bin Yah: there's no place like home" is a documentary film that explores the potential loss of important African American communities in Mt. Pleasant, SC due to growth and development. Through the testimonies of the residents themselves, the film explores the culture, the history. the importance of land and the concept of home, giving voice to those who seldom have had a chance to be heard.

A proposed highway extension threatens to bisect these close-knit neighborhoods of cousins and kinfolk, established by freed slaves and home to generations of their families for hundreds of years/ Many residents are artisans and craftspeople, practicing traditional skills including sweetgrass basketmaking, brought over from West Africa and handed down from mothers and fathers to sons and daughters. Mt. Pleasant is the primary place in the U.S. where this grass is harvested and "sewn" into this particular type of basket.

Bin Yah will attempt to preserve - at least on film - the memories of the special places that may be lost as the struggle between the real "bin yah's" and "come yahs" escalates.

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"Bin Yah" Filmmakers

Director and Editor
Justin Nathanson

Producers
Nancy Cregg and Cara White

Cinematography
Jesse Berger

Historian
M. Patrick Hendrix

Narrators
Michael Allen
Fouche Sheppard

Music
Karen E. Thrower
Charlton Singleton
We Be Brethrens

With Special Thanks to
Richard Hendry, Coastal Community Foundation
Chris Dixon
Henry Fair, Photographer
Liz Oakley, IVS Video
Ed Bates, IVS Video
Joe Rice
Jack McCray
Comet Multimedia
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"Bin Yah" Subjects

Michael Allen, Education Specialist, National Park Service

Evelyn and Louis Benson, Johns Island, SC

Mary Alice Bostick, Four Mile Community, basket maker

Ethel Snipe Coakley, Four Mile Community, basket maker

Dr. Angela Halfacre, Department of Political Science, College of Charleston

Jane Lareau, Program Director, Coastal Conservation League

Ed Lee, Remley's Point Neighborhood Association

Jeannette Lee, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community, basket maker

Elizabeth Mazyck, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community, basket maker

Janie Campbell Mazyck, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community, basket maker

Maggie Mazyck, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community, basket maker

Reverend Harry Palmer, Phillips Community

Dr. Bernard Powers, Department of History, College of Charleston

Queen Quet, Cheiftess of the Gullah-Geechee Nation

Marie Rouse, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community, basket maker

Fouche Sheppard, Poet and Storyteller

David Simmons, Jr., Remley's Point

Reverend Elijah Smalls, Phillips Community

Thomasena Stokes-Marshall, Snowden Community, Mt. Pleasant Town Council Member

Reverend Victoria Washington, Hamlin / Seven Mile Community

Nakia Wigfall, Six Mile Community, basket maker

Henry Wigfall Sr., Six Mile Community, basket maker

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CONTACT INFO:

ChasDOC
PO BOX 14097
Charleston, SC 29422
justin@ChasDOC.org
843.  277-0485