My film is based on an event in 1963 in which the
girls restroom of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was
bombed. 4 Girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and
Denise McNair were killed. Sarah Collins Rudolph, the 5th little girl
survived. I was inspired to make a film about this back in September as
it was the 50th anniversary of the bombing and my church invited Donzaleigh
Abernathy(Ralph Abernathy's daughter) to speak about the unpleasant incident.
I had heard the story before but I had never entirely felt the atrociousness of
the tragedy as I did that Sunday. Maybe it was the fact that I was older,
or perhaps it was the way she explained it.
Her words flowed like a song and her voice as innocent as a child.
I found myself on the edge of my seat the entire time.
When I went to school the next day
and we were asked to pitch our short films that we would individually be
working on for the entire year, I said I would do a film about the 5 girls. I was shocked to learn that not many people in
my film class had heard of it and if they had, they did not know about the 5th
girl who survived. As far as they knew,
there were only 4 girls in the girls restroom that day.
My goal in creating this piece was and is to raise awareness. Awareness of a major event that is marked as
a turning point in the Civil Right Movement.
Awareness of Sarah Collins, who has hardly been recognized and has not received
compensation for the damage the bomb did to her eye and forehead. Awareness of the true costs of hatred, discrimination,
and above all, ignorance.
I hope you liked the video and be sure to give me a
thumbs up or comment on youtube! I would love it if
everyone would spread the word about my video, it would mean a lot! Thank you for watching! Subsribe for more videos! You can also follow me here on my blog, it's not looking so pretty right now but if will soon!
Love,
Gabrielle Gorman
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