Experiencing Interruptions?

The Clotilde: A Poetic Journey

  • REGINE ROMAIN
    Director
    Brooklyn to Benin: A Vodou Pilgrimage
  • REGINE ROMAIN
    Writer
    Brooklyn to Benin: A Vodou Pilgrimage
  • WAWAWA DIASPORA CENTRE
    Producer
    Brooklyn to Benin: A Vodou Pilgrimage and African Odyssey: Ancestral Memories
  • ABORIJIN MEDIA
    Producer
    African Odyssey: Ancestral Memories
  • EMEKA ANOZIE
    Assistant Director
    African Odyssey: Ancestral Memories
  • MORAYO BANKOLE
    Key Cast
    ""Act of 1807""
  • ISHIKA KALWANI
    Key Cast
    ""Crimes Against Humanity""
  • MARC-ALAIN ADJAHI
    Key Cast
    ""Timothy Meaher""
  • TANYA VASWANI
    Key Cast
    ""The Bet!""
  • AYA KAFAL
    Key Cast
    ""Denied Liberty""
  • CYRIAN KEDOWIDE
    Key Cast
    ""Captain William Foster""
  • ISRAA EL ZAHARAWI
    Key Cast
    ""Barracoon""
  • NEYNA ORJI
    Key Cast
    ""Middle Passage""
  • ADETOLA GABA
    Key Cast
    ""Benin - Slave Coast""
  • ALEXANDER CORREA
    Key Cast
    ""Repatriation""
  • CHARISMA ZANNOU
    Key Cast
    ""Cudjo Lewis""
  • ABIGAEL METO
    Key Cast
    ""Wishy-Washy Government""
  • ADAEZE OKENEDUM
    Key Cast
    ""Racism""
  • MARIAM CHADARE
    Key Cast
    ""Africatown""
  • REGINE ROMAIN
    Executive Producer
    BROOKLYN TO BENIN: A Vodou Pilgrimage
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Student, Africa, Benin, Alabama, History, TransAtlantic Slave Trade
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 42 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 22, 2017
  • Country of Origin:
    Benin
  • Country of Filming:
    Benin
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - REGINE ROMAIN

Régine Romain is a Haitian-American artist, educator and visual anthropologist. She is a dynamic storyteller who uses photographs/film/performance to create acts of social resistance to stoke the collective imagination and keep alive new ways of seeing.

Régine lived full-time in Benin, West Africa from January 2016 to February 2018, conducting research, teaching, completing her "Brooklyn to Benin: A Vodou Pilgrimage" mixed-media project and directing/producing three short films. While in West Africa, she created the WaWaWa Diaspora Centre - to actively heal historic wounds and trauma related to the TransAtlantic Slave Trade through inter-generational arts, education, and exchange programs.

She has 20 years practice in creating, researching, teaching, and supporting diverse communities in engaging and co-creating projects that promote positive representations of their individual and collective identities. Through an extensive global network, Régine produces culturally transformative courses, curriculum, workshops, salons, exhibits, festivals, and forums.

She received her B.Sc. in International Studies from Bowie State University and Masters in Photography & Urban Culture from Goldsmiths, University of London. Régine lives between Brooklyn, NY and West Africa.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The Years 8 and 9 middle school students of the English International School in Cotonou, Benin (West Africa) created a short documentary about the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade and the Middle Passage entitled: "The Clotilde: A Poetic Journey" in the Spring of 2017.

This film focuses on the history of the Clotilde schooner, which was one of the last known U.S. slave ships to bring captured Africans from Ouidah, Benin to Mobile, Alabama. Though the United States law of 1807 prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans, 110 captives arrived in Mobile Bay during the autumn of 1859, and were sold into slavery.

This student project honors the great legacy and research of Zora Neale Hurston. "Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" was published 58 years after her death is the inspiration for this short film project.