America’s oldest African-inspired art is the subject of this exciting new film—a visual feast that captures the skill, artistry, and history embodied in the tradition of coiled grass basketry.  We follow basket makers in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, as they harvest materials, create their baskets, and talk about the meaning of their work. From field to market, this half-hour documentary explores the current state of the art form and its prospects for the future.   

video clip

The film will be shown in conjunction with the Gibbes Museum of Art’s exhibition of Lowcountry and African baskets, on display August 29 through November 30, 2008, in Charleston, South Carolina.

GRASS ROOTS will air on SCETV’s  Southern Lens on September 18, 2008, at 10 pm.

Preview Video Clip - MPEG format - 3MB

Photo Gallery - click to enlarge images:Veels

The African-inspired art of basket making takes on new forms in the Lowcountry.
This wave basket by Linda Graddick Huger is made from sweetgrass and bulrush sewn with palmetto.

Collection of Timothy and Pearl V. Ascue  
Photo: Karin Willis

Lowcountry basket makers use a filed-down spoon handle, called a “nailbone”,
to pierce the sweetgrass coil, making way for the palmetto binder. 

Photo: Karin Willis

Detail of Leola Washington’s “cowboy hat” basket, made of sweetgrass and pine needles, sewn with palmetto leaf -- a spectacular example of the evolution of a traditional art.

Collection of the McKissick Museum
Photo: Karin Willis

Joseph Foreman, Jr. displays his baskets at the Charleston Market. 

Photo: Dana Sardet

All photos courtesy of the Museum for African Art

Summer 2008, Approx. 30 minutes runtime

Produced by Center for the Documentary at the College of Charleston, in association with the Avery Research Center
for African-American History & Culture, and the Museum for African Art in New York

director / videographer / editor: Dana Sardet
executive producer: Virginia T. Friedman
original music composed by: Quentin E. Baxter with gospel songs by We Be Brethren, The Gullah Kinfolk, The Staple Singers
advisors from the basket making community: Henrietta Snype and Nakia Wigfall
consulting historian: Dale Rosengarten

We are grateful for generous funding provided by:
Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation
Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
Humanities CouncilSC
South Carolina Arts Commission

Sincere thanks to Thomasena Stokes-Marshall and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association for their help and encouragement.