{"id":10825,"date":"2025-02-19T15:29:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=10825"},"modified":"2025-02-19T15:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:29:41","slug":"history-forgotten-and-now-for-all-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/history-forgotten-and-now-for-all-to-see\/","title":{"rendered":"History Forgotten, and Now for All to See"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Before and after restoration of prominent Braceville citizen, Daniel Shavers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Colette C\u00f3rdova and Daniel Mason<\/em><\/p>\n

History Forgotten and Now for All to See, <\/em><\/strong>a documentary about the rural Great Migration African American Community of Braceville, Ohio, is a captivating film that unveils the rich tapestry of Braceville, a \u201cSmall Town with Big History.\u201d This remarkable town is the birthplace of numerous notable figures, who have left an indelible mark on the world.<\/p>\n

Colette C\u00f3rdova, of Toledo, met Daniel Mason, of the Cleveland area, a film editor and technical director of the film, while working on a political campaign and began working on projects that promote advocacy, especially for people of color, including this documentary.\u00a0 \u201cI was amazed at all of the work that goes on behind the scenes and the countless hours needed to perfect a film,\u201d said Colette C\u00f3rdova, Vice President of ALAS, the Escuela SMART Academy Advisory School Board. \u201cGiven the times we are in now, it\u2019s more important than ever for oppressed populations to get our history out there. Both the Latinx and African American communities have been marginalized for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Mason feels at the core of the film is a question: \u201cHow did this community, who escaped from the Jim Crow south\u2014some of them fleeing with nothing in the middle of the night\u2014end up producing so many notable sons and daughters?\u00a0 What was it about this particular community that led them to live the American Dream, when so many other communities \u201cset aside\u201d for people of color were actively prevented from reaching their potential?\u00a0 How did a small community of maybe 90 families, even at its peak\u2014sitting in a flood zone in the countryside of Ohio\u2014improbably produce multiple millionaires, an Olympian, hall of fame boxers, a member of Jackie Robinson\u2019s All Stars, state track and field record-holders, filmmakers, and many other notables?\u00a0 And, maybe even more importantly, how is it that they are all just about the nicest people you have ever met?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Mason said he knows, \u201csome people are rightfully wary of AI in film\u2014and elsewhere,\u201d but he believes \u201cwhen you are trying to help marginalized people\u2019s voices be heard\u2014and the historical record is often by the nature of said marginalization scant,\u201d he thinks \u201cany tool that can help is worth using.\u201d\u00a0 Mr. Mason added, \u201cAs Howard Zinn\u2019s A People\u2019s History of the United States<\/em>\u2026 there is so much more to learn about how people actually lived from primary sources and from a \u2018bottom up\u2019 approach, rather than a \u2018top down\u2019 history of \u2018Great (usually white) Men\u2019\u2014history as we have traditionally been taught it.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mason hopes that these techniques and some emerging software will allow him and others to tell stories of the wisdom that would otherwise be lost.\u00a0 He says, \u201cEvery neighborhood, often every generation, has multiple stories worth telling.\u201d\u00a0 Because he says, \u201cThere are stories and characters everywhere.\u00a0 We only have to think back to our childhoods, and of all the individuals who left a mark on our memory, helped us form our values and who we are.\u00a0 Most of us have not gone back and interviewed our parents, neighbors, friends\u2014at least not formally.\u00a0 But there is so much there.\u00a0 Lifetimes of accumulated experience, wisdom\u2014and often humor.\u00a0 I encourage everyone to take out their phone (with permission and ideally a heads up, of course), and document the stories of their elders and other interesting people they may know.\u00a0 Sometimes the people you want to interview are not comfortable on camera, but will often let you record a voice memo\u2014you most certainly know people who like to tell stories, and our memories of these stories years later are often sadly lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Mason then went on to discuss implications and potentials of these new ways of storytelling: \u201cThese stories need not be one unedited shot of your abuelo<\/em> (though that is quite important to have a copy of if possible, properly backed up in \u201cthe cloud\u201d), but could include cutaways to photographs and even AI recreations of historical events or just be integrated with existing copyright free footage, if possible (copyright ownership may not be needed for personal or educational use, but you never know where your story may lead or how many people may want to watch it if you post it online).<\/p>\n

According to Mason, \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility to document these histories before they are lost, as we know others won\u2019t\u2014they\u2019ll probably aim for the opposite.\u00a0 It\u2019s perhaps almost equally as important to tell our audience when and how something is manipulated (AI or otherwise), and a good practice to provide access to the original sources of everything, for historical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I encourage everyone reading this to reach out to us at and let us know of your interest.\u00a0 We want to preserve these voices for future generations\u2014and ideally preserve them in a way that inspires younger generations to not just pretend they are listening, smile and say, \u2018S\u00ed, abuelo\u2019\u2014and then proceed to stare back down at their phones\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

History Forgotten and Now for All to See<\/em><\/strong> premiered at Robins Theater, 160 E Market St, Warren, Ohio on February 16, 2025. The hope is to bring it to Toledo in the coming year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Colette C\u00f3rdova and Daniel Mason History Forgotten and Now for All to See, a documentary about the rural Great Migration African American Community of Braceville, Ohio, is a captivating film that unveils the rich tapestry of Braceville, a \u201cSmall Town with Big History.\u201d This remarkable town is the birthplace of numerous notable figures, who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[243],"class_list":["post-10825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film-300x160.jpg",300,160,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",640,341,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",700,373,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film.jpg",500,266,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/correction-film-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Colette C\u00f3rdova and Daniel Mason History Forgotten and Now for All to See, a documentary about the rural Great Migration African American Community of Braceville, Ohio, is a captivating film that unveils the rich tapestry of Braceville, a \u201cSmall Town with Big History.\u201d This remarkable town is the birthplace of numerous notable figures, who","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10827,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10825\/revisions\/10827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10825"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=10825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}