PARADISE (2026)

16mm & Digital, Color, Sound, 45min 

Director:  Gabby Follett
Producer:  Nerissa Williams

Paradise is a personal documentary exploring the filmmaker’s race and national origin. My grandmother, grandfather, and mother emigrated to the United States from the American occupied Panama Canal Zone in 1968. Both of my grandparents are Black West Indians, whose ancestors were lured to Panama to build the canal in exchange for American citizenship. That citizenship never materialized and workers like them were granted Panamanian citizenship to live along the canal in communities that were segregated by US Special Forces. My family eventually settled in Brooklyn, NY where my mother met my white father and they started their family. Paradise is my attempt to understand the complexities of my ethnic and racial identities as informed by history, family interviews, and my own research.

Release date: TBA