Adrena Ifill visits Freedom Regional

On February 26^th, Freedom Regional Library culminated our month-long celebration of Black History Month with a visit from award-winning documentary director Adrena Ifill. Ms. Ifill traveled to Charlotte from her home in Washington D.C. for her presentation to students from Philip O Berry high school and other members of the library community.


As a child, Adrena Ifill always looked forward to watching the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary every February. Her own curiosity and her parents’ guidance instilled a deep love of history in her, and eventually inspired her to become a documentarian herself. She created DoubleBack Productions to bring life to the little-known stories of people of African descent. Ms. Ifill is a graduate of the competitive Documentarey Center of George Washington University in Washington D.C., and has earned her MBA Howard University, as well as a B.A. from Williams College.

Attendees of the program had the pleasure of viewing Ms. Ifill’s latest documentary, the 19^th century rags-to-riches story of congressman Robert Smalls who went from slave to Civil War hero and master politician in South Carolina. This documentary, 10 years in the making, features interviews with several descendants of Congressman Smalls as well as scholars and historians from South Carolina, and was voted Best Documentary in 2007 by the Arizona Black Film Showcase.

Prior to the program, not one student out of the thirty in attendance had ever heard of Congressman Smalls. Following the viewing, Ms. Ifill shared stories of her inspiration and educated the students on how to conduct interviews and do research. There was also a short Q&A session where students and community members were able to ask Ms. Ifill questions about her documentary and career.

Special thanks to Ms. Harris for bringing her English History class and to the school administrators, Dr. Barnes, Principal Fennoy and Media Specialist Naima Hakim for their support in making this a successful event for the students and for encouraging student participation.