THE HOUSE ON COCO ROAD THE HOUSE ON COCO ROAD A FILM BY DAMANI BAKER Duration — 78 min Contact — Damani Baker [[email protected]] Trailer — Vimeo Facebook | Twitter | Instagram www.TheHouseOnCocoRoad.com synopsis — "The House on Coco Road" is an intimate portrait of an activist and teacher who moves her children from Oakland, California to participate in the Grenada Revolution only to find her family in harms way of a U.S. military invasion. It is the filmmaker’s search for historical and emotional truth that will confirm his mother’s place in American history. 4 long synopsis — In 1979 the Grenadian people carry out the first successful revolution in the English - speaking Caribbean. Maurice Bishop becomes prime minister. The Revolution attracts workers from around the world including my mother, Fannie Haughton. In 1982 Angela Davis, her family, and my mother visit Grenada to witness this miraculous Peoples’ Revolution. In 1983 my mother is offered a position in the Ministry of Education and we leave our home in Oakland and move to Grenada. I’d never seen her happier. Grenada was briefly our home. In 1983 the United States led a military invasion following the assassination of the young popular prime minister, Maurice Bishop. We hid under the bed for three days as bombs shook our new paradise, and changed its course forever. Sixteen years later, in 1999, I returned to Grenada with my mother, and began shooting a documentary film, searching for her story, one that felt not just untold but unfinished. In 2014, I discovered a box of family Super-8 footage of my great-grandmother in rural Louisiana on the land our family sharecropped and my grandmother’s migration west. I started to unravel my mother’s path to activism. I started to understand why my mother and a group of tireless women had put their lives on the line, daring to build a better world. You may not know their names, but they have changed the course of history. 5 - Justin Chang 15 quotes from the film — “If we have 95 percent of predominantly African origin in our country, then we can have a dangerous appeal to 30 million Black people in the United States.” —Maurice Bishop “Grenada was a beacon of light for oppressed people all over the world.” —Angela Davis “I began to be bugged by the teaching of American history, because it seemed that that history had been accomplished without my presence.” —James Baldwin “I’m committed to human life—now it’s called social justice. I’m committed to humanity, to making the world a better place. You know, not just for my family, for everybody’s family.” —Fannie Haughton 6 bios — Damani Baker, Director A native of the Bay Area, Damani Baker is a Brooklyn-based director and filmmaker. His first feature documentary about the life and music of Bill Withers, “Still Bill,” opened theatrically to critical acclaim in 2009 and was acquired by Netflix, Showtime, and BBC. Previous work includes “Return,” an award-winning film that explores the genius of traditional African medicine. Damani’s career spans documentaries, music videos, museum installations, and advertisements, and he has worked for clients including Rainforest Alliance, Puma, IBM, and Wieden+Kennedy. His current projects include over ten films for museums in Nigeria and Chattanooga, Tennessee for Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Inc. Damani is a Sundance Fellow and alum of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 new faces in independent film.” In addition to his work, Damani is a professor in the filmmaking, screenwriting, and media arts program at Sarah Lawrence. 7 bios (continued) — Meshell Ndegeocello, Composer, original score Meshell Ndegeocello is a singer-songwriter, producer, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae, and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has ten career Grammy Award nominations. She has been credited for having “sparked the neo-soul movement.” Her eleventh album “Comet, Come To Me,” was released in June 2014. Ndegocello’s music has been featured in numerous film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lost & Delirious, Batman & Robin, Love Jones, Love & Basketball, Talk to Me, Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, The Best Man, Higher Learning, Down in the Delta, The Hurricane, Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom, and Soul Men. Jon Fine, Editor Jon’s a filmmaker and musician. Over the years he’s worked as a producer, DP, director, and editor. His work includes “Still Bill,” about legendary songwriter Bill Withers, “The After Party,” about arrests during the 2004 presidential conventions, “Jazz Days,” a series of global concerts sponsored by UNESCO and Thelonious Monk Institute, “Herbie Hancock’s Possibilities,” the award-winning short “Flavio,” and videos for Herbie Hancock, Antibalas, Raul Midon, Kaki King, Lionel Louek, and Lizz Wright. In 2015, Jon produced “Holy Forest,” an album of songs recorded in The Gambia and the US. He’s now producing “Africa Calling,” a project in partnership with UNICEF, USAID, Angelique Kidjo and students from Benin’s CIAMO school of music to raise awareness around malaria treatment and prevention in West Africa. 8 cast — Damani Baker Yvonne Belfon Maurice Bishop Prestin Baker Angela Davis Fania Davis Alimenta Bishop Fannie Haughton Jacqueline Creft Ronald Reagan 9 - directors statement Through making this film, I’ve been able to mobilize a Making the film presented the opportunity also to community of support around something that’s so collaborate with Meshell Ndegeocello on the score. Her deeply personal and often narratively feels out music has been a soundtrack to many, many moments of place in mainstream conversations about in my own life, and it is an incredible honor to see that dream our history. The beauty of crowdsourcing, and realized. collaborating with my friend and editor, Jon Fine, my partner Cameron Russell, and my godsister Eisa And the relationship I’ve been able to build with the film’s Davis, you feel like you’re building family around an editor, Jon Fine, who understood the intimacy required idea. This film would not have been possible to tell this story right, has been very rewarding. What we without the support of everyone who contributed, built reflects that. and that includes so many people who may not even realize the impact they had on it, on me, because I "THE HOUSE ON COCO ROA"D is one of the most was living it, it wasn’t separate from my own life. challenging and beautiful creative projects I’ve ever done. I’m grateful for my friend and editor, Jon The affirmation I got from my community and even a Fine, my partner, Cameron Russell, and my godsister community of strangers (almost 600 people on Eisa Davis, all my friends, aunties and godmothers kickstarter) brought tremendous validation to a story Belvie Rooks, Fania Davis, Angela Davis, Asake we don’t often get to celebrate, the resilience and Bomani, Yvonne Belfon,and mentorDanny Glover, decisions that women in my own family have made. who pushed this dream through, this life experience I’ve shared with so many people, that is now hopefully will Also, the support of the Sundance Institute and the be part of a larger consciousness. entire community of the Sundance Documentary Program, its staff and support really embraced —Damani Baker, director, "THE HOUSE ON the work I was doing every early. I am grateful for COCO ROAD" them. I hope they reimagine what revolution can mean for themselves and see change and movements around the world differently. 16 Grenada timeline — Twenty-one miles long and ten miles wide, — 1974 - Grenada gains independence from Grenada is rugged volcanic terrain. The jagged Britain, while Gairy is still in power. hills are lushly wooded with tropical tree crops — March 13, 1979 - The popularly based New that support the island’s economy: nutmeg, Jewel Movement, led by Maurice Bishop, cocoa, bananas, breadfruit, mangoes. Deep overthrows the Gairy dictatorship and forms the ravines cut through the mountains and lead People’s Revolutionary Government. down to the sea. Everywhere in Grenada, you — 1981 - US Military practices a mock can feel the sea stretch out before you and the invasion of Grenada called Amber and the dark-green mountains at your back. Amberdines on Vieques, Puerto Rico. — 1-500 AD - The Arawaks settled. GRENADA IS INTRODUCED TO MY FAMILY — 700 - Caribs invade Grenada and kill off Arawaks. — 1498 - Columbus invades — March 1982 - Fannie Haughton, my mother, Grenada, names it “Concepcion." along with Angela and Fania Davis, visits — 1650 - The French town of Port Louis is built, Grenada. Angela Davis speaks at a National marking the first successful European settlement Women’s Day celebration. My mother meets with in Grenada. — 1763 - The Island ceded to the Phyllis Coard and Jacqueline Creft and British by the treaty of Paris. discusses moving to Grenada permanently. — 1834 - Abolition of slavery. — Spring 1983 - With my sister, Kai Baker, we prepare to leave Oakland and move to Grenada. Grenada is home to 110,000 people, the Family happily living in Grenada, mom is hired by majority descended from Africans brought to the the ministry of education to train teachers; my West Indies by the British to work as slaves on sister and I are enrolled in school.— October 13, colonial sugar plantations. Since emancipation 1983 - Prime Minister Maurice Bishop is placed they have been peasant farmers, agricultural under house arrest. “In Grenada’s case, the ideas of ‘Black Power’ that developed in the United States and laborers, urban workers, and professionals. — October 19, 1983 - Bishop released from house the freedom struggle of the African peoples in such places as Angola, Mozambique, and arrest by 10,000 supporters.