Freeman Vines: Film Screening & Discussion

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project and the Institute for Common Power are partnering to present the 2025 award-winning documentary, Freeman Vines, co-directed by André Robert Lee (The Prep School Negro) and Tim Kirkman (Dear Jesse), and produced by Gill Holland.

Freeman Vines is a moving portrait of self-taught luthier and sculptor Freeman Vines, from eastern North Carolina. Filmed when he was 82-years-old and battling multiple myeloma, Freeman has been trying to make a guitar that can reproduce an elusive sound the instrument made decades ago. The search and his artwork took on even more significance when Freeman acquired a stack of lumber from a tree used in the lynching of a young Black man named Oliver Moore. Oliver Moore was lynched on August 19, 1930, not far from where Freeman lived. Freeman’s work invites us to revisit Oliver Moore’s story, and to listen to the past with new ears so that we might carve a different future.

“When I first met Freeman Vines in North Carolina, we had an instant connection that felt centuries old,” said André Robert Lee. “I am the descendant of refugees from the Jim Crow South. Returning to the state that is part of my family’s origin story was scary and powerful. My time with Freeman made me feel like a return to a home I did not even know I had and needed. I poured my heart into this film and now present it with a deep intention to honor Freeman Vines as a recent ancestor.”

The online screening of the short film will be followed by a conversation with special guests including:

• A filmmaker, educator, and cultural strategist, André Robert Lee is the founder of Many Things Productions and the director of award-winning documentaries that sit at the intersection of storytelling, social impact, and community engagement. His recent work includes the feature documentary This Too Is Healthcare: Bridging the Gaps and the Oscar-qualified and NAACP Image Awards nominated short Freeman Vines, acquired by Switchboard Magazine. André has directed and produced for CNN’s This Is Life with Lisa Ling, co-directed the Sundance-premiering Meet Me Where I Am, and served as Executive Producer of NPR’s Notes From America with Kai Wright, helping expand the program to more than 120 stations nationwide. Earlier in his career, he worked on Miramax’s Oscar campaigns and was hand-selected by Albert Maysles to collaborate on multiple documentary projects.
• John-Phillip (JP) Williams is a genealogical researcher and reparations advocate focused on advancing truth, memory, and reparative justice for Descendants of American Chattel Slavery. He holds a B.S. in African American Studies from Florida State University. JP is a member of the Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project, presenting on The Untold Story of the Lynching of John Henry Scott, which occurred in 1875 in Oxon Hill, MD. Through research and advocacy, he works to document suppressed histories, introduce descendants to their family lineage in the United States and supports ongoing efforts toward reparative justice.
• Dr. Terry Anne Scott is an award-winning historian, author, and speaker. She is the Director of the Institute for Common Power, an educational 501(c)3 branch of Common Power. She is a former Professor of African American History and Chair of the Department of History at Hood College, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Sports History, and a member of the Editorial Staff for the Journal of American History. Dr. Scott serves as the Vice President of the MLMP.
• Amy S. Millin is the is the President of the MLMP where her passion rests in the ways that community programming creates opportunity for conversation in local, state, and national spaces. She serves as a Commissioner on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission—the only such Commission in the country. She is adjunct in the MA in Cultural Sustainability and MA in Historic Preservation programs at Goucher College.