Underground History Documentary
Underground History
In many places in the world, people strive to acknowledge the history of the land where they reside. Known as land acknowledgement, this recognition identifies the past which erased Indigenous people’shistory and culture. As a broader concept acknowledgement can be a starting point in recognizing histories which have been erased, ranging from ancient Indigenous people to contemporary displaced communities.
Underground History is a documentary and a series of spoken word art films which explore the connections between the Tampa Bay region’s diverse cultural history and emerging community efforts to acknowledge that past in charting the future.
The Underground History documentary presents the diverse stories of Saint Petersburg and Tampa Bay’s ancestral settlements and erased communities, revealing connected layers from the Pleistocene to the present. Through interviews and location-based filming, the documentary considers the connections between the Tampa Bay region’s diverse cultural history and emerging community efforts to acknowledge that past in charting the future. From excavation of ancient sites to the descendants of those ancestral mound builders, Underground History connects the legacy of the Tocobaga, Tequesta and Calusa to the contemporary Seminole Tribe of Florida. It explores the connections between the Seminole and escaped enslaved people through their early settlements in Spanish Florida and later their connection to Cuba through the creation of fishing ranchos. It presents the historic links between early African American settlers and their displaced communities and erased cemeteries. The film takes viewers on a journey which follows the historic waterways which once created a connectivity for these places and people.
Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and in partnership with Merfolk Media Alliance. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
