bloodline.proj
Welcome to my archive of projects, photos, videos, illustrations, and research about my family and Jamaica
This project began with a short documentary Bloodline (2019) where my mom and I discuss our family tree, her immigrating to the U.S. from Jamaica, stitched with home videos and photographs.
The Films
Now in 2022 and in my senior year at Pratt Institute, I’ll be continuing the world of Bloodline with my short thesis film.
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The Blog
Peruse in order of most to least recent, or filter by categories and tags.
Soon Come Back (Trailer)
Trailer for my upcoming film Soon Come Back.
Tips For Genealogy Research
Martin Rennalls
About Martin Rennalls, Jamaican filmmaker and educator.
Joe Harriott
About Joe Harriott, Jamaican saxophonist and pioneer of freeform Jazz
Una Marson
About Una Marson, Jamaican writer, journalist, and editor.
National Gallery Jamaica
My visit to the National Gallery of Jamaica during the Kingston Biennal 2022.
Art Photos
Bloodline 2 - Pitch 2
Presented at the end of Fall 2022.
Newspaper Clippings
Newspaper ads from Jamaica (1943) and New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (late 1800s mid-1900s I don’t remember)
Jamaica Reading List
In a recently published New York Times article, “Read Your Way Through Kingston, Jamaica” author Marlon James gives readers a list of novels that capture the complex island of Jamaica. This is my list of novels, stories, poems, and academic texts about jamaica and the Caribbean.
Bloodline Book 2: Getting to know you…
This book is the second in a series of artist books called Bloodline. Bloodline is a documentary I made about my family tree in 2019, and its sequel will be my senior thesis film in 2023. For this artist book, I used an index card holder to create a collection of items that summarize my grandmother and her mother.
National Museum Jamaica
My dad and I visited National Museum Jamaica in Kingston and got a wonderful tour from one of the outreach officers Stephanie Rose who explained the legacy of Taíno and African cultures in Jamaica.
Aunt Hilma's House - Jamaica Dec 2019
Shot in December of 2019 and edited in 2022, my dad and I look through my great aunt's photo albums in Kingston. This was after showing my 2019 film Bloodline to my parents.
Archival Jamaica
In September of 2022 started downloading images from archives and adding basic metadata. That data will be added here over time, but sources include the National Library of Jamaica, the Caribbean Photo Archive, the Library of Congress, and LIFE.
My Parents Orchids
Taken by my mom, March 2021
09.28.2022
Google slides poetry
Bloodline 2 - Pitch 1
Summer ideation, presented in the first weeks of my senior thesis class.
St Elizabeth Slave Records (1800s)
A spreadsheet displaying the number of enslaved people owned by my ancestors on my maternal grandfather’s side. The Mitchell, Mullings, Russell, and Swaby families all lived in St Elizabeth during the early 1800s according to Jamaican Almanacs.
The History of Jamaica and Maroon Diasporas
This Google Earth project traces slavery and colonization in the West Indies, specifically Jamaica
Bloodline Book 1
I’m starting to work on my senior thesis film, a sequel to Bloodline. I’ve become fascinated with archives and art books, and this book is my first attempt at gathering the digital photos, the Ancestry family tree I’ve grown through digging around the internet, and other media that represent main characters and moments that influenced me to make this project.