Film Fills Black History Gaps

The Daytona Beach News Journal

Monday June 4, 2007

by: Linda Trimble

Tyrone Young, center, directs Tad Allen, left, who is portraying Abraham Lincoln, and John H. Anderson Jr., who is protraying Frederick Douglass, during filming for "Filling The Gap" at The Casements in Ormaond Beach on Sunday. "Filling The Gap" is a documentary about the role of the blacks during the Civil War, and is con-produced by Mary Fears and Young.

ORMOND BEACH - The photographer zoomed in on the black and white hands clasped together in greeting as President Abraham Lincoln welcomed Frederick Douglass to the White House.

The former slave-turned-abolitionist and acclaimed orator spoke in a deep, calm voice as he appealed to Lincoln for assurances black soldiers in the Union Army would be treated the same as white troops.

Lincoln pledged to help and director Tyrone Young said "cut" - just like in the movies.

The scene that played out again and again on Sunday at The Casements was, in fact, for the movies. It will become part of "Filling The Gap," a documentary on the roles blacks played during the Civil War.

Young, an award-winning filmmaker from Longwood, and Mary Fears, a historian and retired school librarian from Daytona Beach, are co-producing the film. The two teamed up after meeting last year at the annual re-enactment of the 1864 Battle of Olustee near Lake City.

They hope their film will literally fill the gap between what most children learn in school about blacks as slaves and the reality of the many other roles blacks played n American history.

"The kids today are so embarrassed about our ancestors being slaves. Thst's all they learn," Young said. "Our ancestors weren't just slaves. They were inventors, skilled craftsmen, artist and spies (for the Union)."

Fears and Young are paying the startup costs for the 80-minute film they plan to finish shooting in September in hopes of selling it for television broadcast and to schools. They're seeking donations and other investors to cover the $300,000 budget.

Tyrone Young, left, directs Tad Allen, portraying Abraham Lincoln, center, and John H. Anderson Jr., in the role of Frederick Douglass, during filming Sunday of "Filling The Gap" at the Casements in Ormond beach. The film about the role of African Americans during the Civil War.

To keep costs low, Fears and Young are depending on Civil War re-enactors who already have clothing from the period, amateur actors they've recruited and mostly Florida sites that can be adapted to represent places from the mid-1800s.

The Casements - oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller's winter home that was built in the early 1900s - was the backdrop Sunday for Lincoln's White House meetings with Douglass and Sojourner Truth, another former slave who campaigned for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.

Fears' son, John H. Anderson Jr. of Tallahassee, played Douglass while retired Bethune-Cookman University vice president Cleo Higgins played Truth.

Scenes featuring First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, played by Mary Lee Sweet of Palm Coast, and her seamstress Elizabeth Keckly, played by Volusia assistant school superintendent Peromnia Grant of Daytona Beach, also were taped Sunday at The Casements.

While not on camera, many of the veteran re-enactors swapped tales about the characters they played - like Sweet's stories of Mary Todd Lincoln's expensive tastes for Parisian fashions or fancy decorations for the White House

Others talked about their penchant for reliving history. Tad Allen of Rockledge has been playing Abraham Lincoln for about 30 years. After growing a beard, people told him it made him look like the 16th president.

He resisted requests to play Lincoln at first but finally gave in. "Iguess there was enough of a ham in me that I consented," he said.

Allen has learned to be prepared for everything over the years - from the children who tell him they thought he was dead - to unexpected costume problems like the fake mole that kept slipping from his cheek Sunday.

Unfazed, he dashed to his car before the next scene to retrieve a replacement because, he said; "You never go anywhere without a few spare moles."