Our first history-based documentary is entitled “Hidden in Plain Sight – Revealing the Concealed Harpers Ferry Cemeteries.” Two cemeteries are featured. One cemetery was set aside by the United States Armory at Harpers Ferry in 1852 at the request of the citizenry, where Union soldiers were later buried. Another holds the remains of African American residents, including an African American Union soldier. Both are investigated using public records, interviews with local residents, and other clues to explain why these cemeteries were ignored in a town so rich in history.
In the film, a wandering line is drawn through and between cholera epidemics and devastating floods, clergy and judiciary, Jefferson County and Liberia, Niagara Falls and the Shenandoah River – finding ordinary people living otherwise ordinary lives thrust into chaotic, threatening and unfamiliar circumstances. That is the history of the United States.
So long as pivotal events are described as aberrations on an otherwise flat shiny surface, people won’t see their collective reflection in a country’s drama. This documentary hopes to dispel that notion and reveal that we have, like those before us, important roles to play.