Atlanta Filmmaker Tells of Great Migration South

The hard cold fact about being an independent filmmaker is it’s an ugly game where only few survive; perhaps no one knows that better than Naimah Fuller, whose current production Home: The Great Migration of the 21st Century has spanned six years in development.

And though she credits Cascade natives and Ambassador Andrew Young for opening doors with the venture, the road ‘home’ was a story in and of itself to be told.

Fuller, born in Rochelle, Ga., moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as a kid where she was exposed to the fundamentals of photography early on through her father, a freelancer. Her interest in photography was cultivated with her own efforts, having built her own darkroom in twelfth grade.

“My father, father’s father and father’s father’s father were all photographers, but that didn’t really influence me since I didn’t learn about them until later in my life,” Fuller says.

By happenstance, while studying at the School of Social Research in NYC, Fuller learned of a program geared toward minorities in film. The program supported minorities’ foray into the film business through local trade unions, also known as the ‘locals.’ She participated in the program for script supervision where she did a twelve month apprenticeship and receive her union card at the program’s completion.

With no prior experience, Fuller went to work on film sets for major motion pictures produced in and around New York City. The days were long, the work was though and the pay was low but Fuller stuck it out networking all the while until she found the next thing she wanted to do.

“Even with a union card, you had to beg to get on films; it isn’t an even playing field for minorities in the industry,” Fuller sighs.

Fuller gained the bulk of her film training not in film school but in the newsroom. She applied for a position as a desk assistant at ABC News where she landed the job. Though she says it was a temporary step back, it also lead to better opportunities where she would eventually become a producer honing her film-making skill even further.

After spending nearly a decade with ABC, Fuller moved on to producing independent film projects with others she had come into contact with. Other entrepreneurial aspirations led her to leave NYC for Atlanta during the early 2000’s.

While here, Fuller noticed so many others relocating back to the city or migrating to the area for the first time. It caught her attention her while working a stint with security company ADT when Fullers says she noticed nearly everyone she came into contact with was an implant – spawning the idea for a film about Blacks coming back home to the South.

“When I looked around you were hard pressed to find people who were actually from Atlanta, they were from everywhere but here,” Fuller notes of her idea’s origin.

Like the Great Migration occurring from 1910 to 1970 where 6.5 million Blacks left the South for better opportunities in the North, Northeast, Midwest and West, Fuller says there’s a new migration of Blacks back to not just Atlanta but the South in general. Southern cities such as Charlotte, Houston, Miami and New Orleans have all realized an influx of Blacks and other minorities relocating in recent years.

Fuller’s movie documents the reasons, attitudes and feelings of people who are relocating to these areas. Fuller says in her research she not only traveled to Southern cities where people are moving to, she also traveled to cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and NYC where people are moving from. She discovered what she calls the Push/Pull Factor.

The Push is what pushes people to leave where they are. People cited reasons of poor job pools, lack of economic resources but also gentrification of urban areas where these neighborhoods are becoming “multicultural” at the expense of local communities. Increases in property taxes and tax brackets are forcing out longtime residents in droves. 

The Pull factor is another major consideration for transplants as they move to certain areas for better opportunities, affordable housing, cultural attractions and sometimes just the kinship to their roots or heritage.

“Why move back to Mississippi? I’m comfortable on home ground, on home territory,” said famed Oscar-award-winning actor Morgan Freeman.

But Fuller’s vision has not come together without a fight. As the sole producer, writer, director, cinematographer, and editor on the project the road has been hard and the journey long. Launching production in 2005, she is in the final stages of completion where she is using a crowd-sourcing social media platform called IndieGoGo to help secure the last of the funds necessary to bring the film together. This makes it easy for people interested in contributing small or large amounts to the film with anonymity or recognition.  

Fuller admits she’s been luckier than most to gain interviews with African American icons like Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou, Ambassador Andrew Young, Cascade resident and U.S. Representative John Lewis and a host of others.

But much of her ‘luck’ came from a willingness of never giving up, stubborn tenacity and a staunch supporter in Reverend C.T. Vivian. Fuller says she vividly recalls the days when people around her kept telling her to give up on the film, or that it was a ‘good idea’ but had little to offer by way of encouragement, support or financing.

People, in general, tend to know little about the film-making process beyond what they see on TV says Fuller. She believes that though digital media has made it easier to create content, people really don’t understand the cost of undertaking a film. There are financial considerations in not only production costs but after the fact there are marketing costs, distribution costs, Internet marketing costs (hosting, websites, etc.), travel, festival fees, promotion and much more.

Naimah Fuller’s Home: The Great Migration of the 21st Century is nearing its final stage of completion and can benefit with your help by visiting her fundraising campaign at: http://igg.me/p/30562?a=162165&i=shlk. Or you can reach Fuller directly at: theplacecalledhome@gmail.com.