Edgecombe is an open-ended and thoughtful inquiry into home and place. Less than 100 miles east of Durham, North Carolina, in Edgecombe County’s African American community, three stories come together in a succinct and pointed collective portrait. Shaka Jackson, Doris Stith, and Deacon William Joyner tell their personal narratives, with a backdrop of expansive historical patterns of injustice, commitment to community, and endurance. Meditative cinematography and a sensitive soundtrack give weight to the film’s demonstration of how poverty itself is punished, how slavery is not so distant, and how the damages of Jim Crow segregation persist.  NK

Filmmaker Q&A following screening