Making Gumbo Jubilee: Triumph of Howard Conyers

I first fell in love with filmmaking in 1981. I was a pudgy, seven-year-old growing up on a farm in rural South Carolina. My older siblings often took me to see the latest summer blockbusters and I had all the corresponding toys. I also lost lots of time during hot summer days going to the run-down dollar movie theater next to my father’s job in the city, 45 minutes away from where we lived. However, it was a television documentary that really hooked me.

When “The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark” premiered on our local PBS station, I laid on the floor in front of the television mesmerized. The whole world seemed to unfold in front of my eyes--there was travel, adventure, and exotic locations. There were large cameras on high cranes in the desert, flanked by a technical film crew of legions below and the execution of all of my favorite stunts and action sequences were described in great detail. I looked at the bearded director playfully staging each sequence and knew I had been doing the same thing with my action figures. So, I turned to my older sister and said, ‘That’s what I want to be when I grow up.’ She was amused at my statement but then that I should look closer at who was doing the work. “Little black boys don’t grow up to do that kind of work. You might want to think about something more practical.” I can’t remember if she offered more of an explanation. But I remember looking back at the screen and feeling, the first time, wholly separated from the movie magic that those men were allowed to create.

I was in high school when black filmmakers like Spike Lee proclaimed a new era of access for independent filmmakers of color. Their success gave me courage to reclaim my childhood dream. By that time, I was showing great promise doing still photography, even winning regional awards. I held true to that dream through college-where I was deeply moved by the work of designer and filmmaker Saul Bass, Ridley Scott, and documentarian Ken Burns. My passions were further ignited when I found work as production assistant working on countless commercials, documentaries, indie films and a cable television series produced by veteran actors Tim and Daphne Reid, at their studio outside of Richmond, Virginia. Through years of odd jobs, financially thick and thin times, that singular star guided me true north, until I was able to make my first film in 2004 for BET. I am forever grateful for all of the lessons and inspiration.

For the past 15 years since, I have left my home each morning to work at my own production company in Washington, DC. Corporate videos, commercials and documentaries and a lot of sheer determination and good fortune have allowed me to experience production adventures of my own across the U.S. Even on the eastern shores of Africa. Digital capture has hastened the tide of opportunity, learning and self-promotion. My wife and business partner actively reinvest a percentage of revenues from our client work into telling original unscripted stories about people of color that we believe are missing from our cultural landscape, particularly in the areas of history, health, religion, and African-heritage cooking/foodways.

“Making Gumbo Jubilee: Triumph of Howard Conyers” is our first foray into telling stories about African American foodways. In this short-film, Dr. Howard Conyers, another native South Carolinian and host of the PBS Digital series “Nourish” (2018 Season), pays homage to centuries of black pit master tradition. This NASA rocket scientist demonstrates both his engineering prowess and culinary mastery by slow-roasting an entire cow for about 40 prominent African American chefs and food writers. His passion for preserving and sharing this rich culinary history is an undeniable muse that guides him throughout the arduous 21-hour process which he has pledged never to do again. We are honored to have been invited to witness and share this amazing event and hope that it brings greater interest to the significant African American contributions to American cuisine.