Research at AAS

A Chain of Windows
A 60 minute mixed format documentary, A Chain of Windows investigates the cultural legacy of slave dwellings in New England and the American South. The film is an excavation -- an attempt to bring to light aspects of our nation's history that have been neglected and repressed. These sites, many of which have been abandoned and left to rot, while nearby plantations are meticulously restored, are a fruitful locus of issues relating to the political, social, psychological and economic history of slavery in the United States. The project is being developed with the support of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from The American Antiquarian Society and the Film Arts Foundation.

About the Fellow

Britta Sjogren is an award-winning independent filmmaker living and working in San Francisco. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow for her filmmaking for the development of A Chain of Windows. Her book, Into the Vortex: Female Voice and Paradox in Film was published in 2006 by the University of Illinois Press.