It’s different when you have a poster. The movie that exists only in your imagination is now a step closer to reality. Even if it’s a tiny step…it’s something tangible, something you can show to folks.

When you are a solo filmmaker, the natural tendency is to concentrate your effort on making the film itself. After all, you only so much bandwidth. In a perfect world, you manage to strike a balance among all the tasks: researching, writing, filming, gathering archival visuals, rights negotiations, fundraising, and raising awareness through promotional outreach. In the real world, each area jockeys for position and there never is enough time. Seems like promotion is the first task that gets shoved to the backburner.

William Edmondson talked with God. And God delivered a message: teach yourself to carve in limestone. Within five years, the old janitor from Nashville, Tennessee was a master sculptor, and in 1937 he became the first African American to be given a solo show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. What started as divine inspiration culminated in a kind of miracle.