DESCENDANT

Jowers led the marketing and impact campaign around Descendant, a documentary about the descendants of the last slave ship to enter the United States.

Descendant was produced by Participant and is available to stream on Netflix in partnership with Higher Ground, the Obamas’ production company, and in association with Executive Producer Ahmir “Questlove Thompson". The impact campaign was designed to support the release of the film, the descendants of the Clotilda and the community of Africatown. Working alongside national partners and local community organizations, we amplified how the descendants, the community of Africatown and others have long preserved their history through oral storytelling and are working toward memorializing these stories to strengthen our collective memory.

Under Jowers’ leadership, the Descendant campaign:

  • Executed the hometown premiere of the film in Mobile, which garnered widespread local coverage and a TIME campaign announcement - resulting in the first public statement from the descendants of the Clotilda enslavers

  • Secured influencer support from former President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Stephen Satterfield, Fatima Goss-Graves, Catherine Coleman Flowers as well as from organizations such as the EPA and the U.S. African Development Foundation

  • Advanced the community’s environmental justice advocacy efforts by connecting movement leaders with the EPA, the Office of the Vice President and the Council on Environmental Quality.

  • Established the Africatown Futures Fund and cohort in partnership with the Big We, a longer-term commitment to support economic development, environmental justice and history preservation in the community

  • Secured speaking engagements for filmmakers and subjects, including at Sundance, SXSW, DOCNYC, Skoll World Forum, among others

  • Secured national coverage of the campaign, highlighting the film, environmental justice, Black culture/policy issues and history preservation, including in TIME, HuffPost, IndieWire, TheGrio, Vox and Crooked Media’s What A Day podcast