The campus community is invited to a free screening of the 60-minute film "Searching For Timbuctoo" at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6:30pm in 122 Shineman Center. Director Paul A. Miller will join afterwards to hold a talkback with the audience.

The film combines archival photos, period newspaper accounts, and personal letters to weave together the epic narratives of Gerrit Smith, John Brown and the pioneering African American settlers like Lyman Epps looking to forge new lives in an unforgiving wilderness. Support for this event comes from Penfield Library, the Department of History, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Cinema and Screen Studies and the university's Grand Challenges initiative.

Miller is an independent writer, photographer and filmmaker based in upstate New York. As an experienced television professional, he worked for national shows and networks including The History Channel, National Geographic Channel, PBS and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

In 1846, in an effort to level a blow against racism, wealthy New York landowner and well-known abolitionist leader Gerrit Smith gave away 120,000 acres of wild land to nearly 3000 African-American families so that they could have the right to vote in the State of New York. The land grants — what Smith called his "scheme of justice and benevolence," would bring together a diverse group of black and white abolitionists, including a struggling sheep farmer named John Brown — all of whom would be willing to sacrifice either their fortune, their families, or even their fate for the cause of land and liberty.

The film depicts a battle abolitionists waged from the "burned over district" of central New York to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. and to the plains of "bleeding Kansas." They were determined to either overthrow slavery or be forever changed in the act, according to the film's website. Smith had no way of knowing that it would also lead one man to the brink of insanity, another to the gallows and help hurtle the nation towards a catastrophic civil war, the site added.

Smith also has an Oswego connection in that he financed the construction and outfitting of the Oswego Public Library on East Second Street, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Searching For Timbuctoo" reveals the hidden history of this long-lost community and follows SUNY Potsdam archaeologist Hadley Kruczek-Aaron who, since 2009, has tried to unearth the elusive Timbuctoo settlement. Kruczek-Aaron and her team of students since have been granted rare permission to break ground at a historic site of John Brown’s Farm near Lake Placid, and cameras document their discoveries.

"Searching For Timbuctoo" is Miller's first feature-length documentary. For more information about the film and director Miller, visit https://www.timbuctoofilm.com/the-film.

-- Submitted by Penfield Library