Documentary Film Screening: Freedom Hill

Princeville sits atop swampy land along the Tar River in North Carolina. In the 1800’s this land was disregarded and deemed uninhabitable by white people. After the Civil War, this indifference left it available for freed Africans to settle. Before its incorporation, residents called it ‘Freedom Hill,’ gradually establishing a self-sufficient town. Resting along the floodplain of the river, Princeville residents are no strangers to adversity. The historical town has been inundated with flooding over the centuries. Freedom Hill is a documentary that explores the environmental racism that is washing away the town of 2,000 through the lens of Marquetta Dickens, a Princeville native who recently moved back to help save her hometown and whose grandmother casted the historic vote in 99’ as mayor against the federal and state government’s recommendation to simply move the town elsewhere. 

The documentary uses Princeville, its residents and Marquetta’s journey back home as vehicles to examine what that responsibility, and lack thereof, looks like.

Runtime is 29 minutes. Watch the trailer here.

We are honored to have Resita Cox, the film’s director/producer, joining us for an in-person post film discussion.

NC State University Libraries is a proud Screening Partner of South Arts’ 2023-24 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers connects US-based documentary filmmakers with communities throughout the South for screenings and conversations around important stories and the art of filmmaking. Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts, a regional arts organization, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information about Southern Circuit please visit www.southarts.org/southerncircuit.