My introduction to artist Bill Traylor came with the 1982 watershed exhibit “Black Folk Art in America” in DC. I had applied for a small grant to film the opening, and interview the featured living artists who attended. Traylor’s iconic art was used for the exhibit’s poster and still hangs in my office. Since encountering Bill Traylor’s art some 35 years ago, I have long contemplated his work, wanting to unravel and dig deeper into his world. Today, Bill Traylor is one of the most celebrated self-taught artists, with one of the most remarkable and unlikely biographies. Now, coming full circle, my documentary film Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts will premiere at the opening of a retrospective of his work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, organized by Leslie Umberger, curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art.

Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts strives to broaden our understanding of this period of transformation, a time when black people prospered as business professionals in Montgomery, in spite of living through the fear and volatility of Jim Crow South that impacted daily life. Traylor created his own visual language as a means to communicate and record the stories of his life. Traylor’s art is the sole body of work made by a black artist of his era to survive. He made well over a thousand drawings and paintings on discarded cardboard between 1939 and 1942.

Bill Traylor did not begin to draw until he was an old man; and when he did, his burst of creativity demonstrated a unique mastery of artistic technique. Without setting out to do so, he became a chronicler of his times.

Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts is an inventive feature documentary capturing the vivid life of Bill Traylor, who in his late 80s, living homeless on the street in the thriving segregated black neighborhood of Montgomery, produced a body of extraordinary art. Born into slavery in 1853 on a cotton plantation in rural Alabama, Traylor witnessed profound social and political change during his life spanning slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration. In his later years, Traylor poured out those memories from within, drawing and painting over 1,000 pieces of art from 1939-42. Using historic and cultural context, the film is designed to bring the spirit and mystery of Traylor’s incomparable art to life. The transcendent surprise is while Traylor kept to himself leading an unassuming life, he was nurturing a remarkable creative gift that would not be expressed for decades. Tap dance, evocative period and original music, and dramatic readings are used in surprising ways in the film, balanced with insightful perspectives from Traylor family members and expert interviews. Traylor devised his own visual language to record the stories of his life, translating an oral culture into something unique, powerful, and culturally rooted. The film reflects a tumultuous time of a forgotten world and its marginalized people, still reverberating today. A new lynching memorial and Legacy Museum recently opened in Montgomery just blocks from where Bill Traylor used to sit and work. Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts explores the life of a unique American artist, a man with a remarkable and unlikely biography. The film is a compelling human narrative that gives voice to a man who endures a long life of extreme hardships during an era of legalized racial indignities, to become one of America’s most prominent artists, exhibited in museums and collections worldwide.

“Bill Traylor is a unique American artist. Traylor stood with feet planted in two different worlds—one in his rural nineteenth century past, the other in an urban, twentieth-century world in which African Americans were shaping their own vibrant culture.”

— Leslie Umberger, Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum 

For more information, link here for the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) exhibit.

Bill Traylor was born around 1853, on an Alabama cotton plantation owned by John Traylor, near Pleasant Hill, Alabama, in Dallas County, close to the Lowndes County line. Born into slavery, Traylor was about twelve years old when the Civil War ended, ending his legal servitude but not the basics of his way of life: he continued to live near his birthplace for another six decades, working as a farm laborer and contract farmer for the Traylor family. In the late 1920s, his rural livelihood ended by poor harvest and bad health, Traylor moved to Montgomery, where he worked odd jobs in the segregated black neighborhood. A decade later, in his late eighties, Traylor became homeless and started to draw, both past memories from plantation days and current scenes of a radically changing culture. Traylor’s life spanned slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration—which led most of his children away from the South. When he died in 1949 he left behind more than 1,000 drawings and paintings made on discarded cardboard.

In 1939, in Montgomery, a local artist named Charles Shannon saw Traylor drawing and recognized the self-taught artist’s remarkable gifts. Shannon, along with other members of a progressive artists’ coalition called the New South, gave Traylor paints and pencils and bought paintings and drawings from him over the next four years. Another forty years would pass before the art world took notice of Traylor’s enormous legacy, which comprises the largest known body of drawn and painted images made by an artist born into slavery. Traylor’s life and work compel us to examine the genius of an old and infirm black man making his art on a street corner in Montgomery, Alabama.

Jeffrey Wolf (Director/Producer/Editor) made the acclaimed documentary, James Castle: Portrait of an Artist, an award-winning film that delves into the life and creative process of the artist James Castle, as told by family members, artists and members of the deaf community. He has also made short films about the following artists: James ‘Son Ford’ Thomas, Martin Ramirez, Elijah Pierce, and Gregory Van Maanen. As a feature film editor, Wolf is recognized for his film work with prominent directors such as Arthur Penn, Sidney Lumet, David Grubin, John Waters, Ted Demme, and Lasse Hallström. Films include The Ref, Beautiful Girls, Holes, Life, among others. Wolf is a member of the American Folk Art Museum's Council for Art Brut and Self-Taught Art. The purpose of this group is to help guide the museum curators in understanding what is important to the museum membership and public at large.

See a trailer of Jeffrey Wolf’s previous documentary on artist James Castle.

Fred Barron (Writer/Producer) was Executive Producer on Seinfeld, created Caroline in the City and wrote/executive produced The Larry Sanders Show. His BBC series My Family has been one of the longest running shows in British television history. Barron's shows have won Emmy, Cable-Ace, BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards.

Daphne McWilliams (Producer) began her documentary career in 1995 as a line producer for the Academy Award nominated film Four Little Girls, directed by Spike Lee. Her other credits include "Feels Like Coming Home" and "Warming by the Devils Fire" for Martin Scorsese’s "The Blues" documentary series, and the documentary Slavery by Another Name, directed by Sam Pollard, as well as Pollard's recently released feature documentary Maynard, which tells the story of the first African American mayor of Atlanta. McWilliam’s recently had her directorial debut for her documentary film In a Perfect World...

Jeany Nisenholz-Wolf (Producer) began working in documentary films as an Associate Producer for the 2008 acclaimed documentary James Castle: Portrait of an Artist. She continued her decades’ work as a publicity and communications consultant in the publishing industry up until her current work as a producer.

Keith Reamer (Editor) is a New York-based motion picture editor. He has been in the film industry for more than thirty years and, since his start, has cut over 45 features and documentaries. His credits include: I Shot Andy Warhol,Songcatcher, Three Seasons, Amreeka, The Music Never Stopped and The China Hustle. He has just finished editing and co-directing, with William Murray, the documentary, Made a Movie, Lived to Tell.

Henry Adebonojo (Cinematographer) In 2001, Henry was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the documentary Half Past Autumn—The Life and Works of Gordon Parks for HBO directed by Craig Rice, and in the same year, the documentary On Hallowed Ground—The Championships of the Rucker, a basketball documentary program directed by Kip and Kern Konwiser, won a Sports Emmy for best documentary subject. In 2016, Henry was invited by acclaimed director Raoul Peck to contribute to the production for I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary based on an unfinished work by the author James Baldwin. This film was nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary class in 2017. He recently worked on a documentary titled Maynard about Atlanta’s first black Mayor Maynard Holbrook Jackson, directed by the award-winning director Sam Pollard.

Sam Pollard (Consulting Producer) is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director whose work spans 30+ years. He’s been involved with practically every iconic African-American film during that time including as director of Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun for American Masters and Slavery by Another Name for national PBS broadcast. In addition to his film, video and documentary work, Pollard is a Professor of Film Studies at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Pollard brings invaluable experience and a deep knowledge of African-American culture as well as filmmaking expertise.

Alabama Humanities Foundation Grant

With a grant from the AHF and our sponsor, the Capri Theatre, we are able to offer a free, open-to-the-public screening. Please join us for the Montgomery, AL premiere of Bill Traylor Chasing Ghosts. We are grateful to all of our co-sponsoring and participating groups:

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery Film Festival
Landmarks Foundation
Alabama State University (ASU)
Kress on Dexter
NewSouth Books
Marcia Weber Art Objects
Attorney MBS/Cotton Belt Gallery

Second Show Added - Friday, October 25th, 5:00 PM - Q & A with director Jeffrey Wolf

Join us for a screening of the groundbreaking documentary about the artist Bill Traylor, who captured scenes of life in Alabama, from his rural roots in Dallas County to Montgomery's Monroe Street (then Avenue), where he lived and made his extraordinary drawings.

Audience at the Capri Theatre eagerly awaiting the Montgomery premiere of Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts.

“Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts is not only an important documentary about survival in the Jim Crow South, it is a celebration of art and the best of humanity transcending poverty, racism and despair.”

— Morris Dees, cofounder, Southern Poverty Law Center 

City of Montgomery Unveils Bill Traylor Historical Marker

On Thursday, October 24th at 2:00 PM, Mayor Strange will hold a press conference for the Bill Traylor marker unveiling. This will take place on N Lawrence at Monroe, where Bill Traylor used to sit and work on the street. Following the ceremony, ASU archivist/historian Joe Caver will lead a discussion and walking tour of the historic Montgomery business district.

Historic Marker, Film Honor Montgomery Artist Bill Traylor - WSFA News

A new historic marker was unveiled in downtown Montgomery, AL, to honor world-renowned artist Bill Traylor. The marker is located at the corner of North Lawrence and Monroe streets, where Traylor used to sit and work.

Bill Traylor’s Outsider Art Veers Into the Mainstream - Montgomery Advertiser

Filmmaker Jeffrey Wolf, Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts, and Marcia Weber of Marcia Weber Art Objects, Wetumpka, AL are shown here unveiling the marker with former Mayor Todd Strange.

SAAM Symposium

On February 22nd, SAAM held a half-day symposium, a superb presentation that was live streamed and archived HERE.

Black Harvest Film Festival

It was a privilege to participate in the 25th Anniversary of this film festival, honoring co-founder Sergio Mims prior to our first screening, and followed by a Q&A by Cleo Wilson, former president of The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.

Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers

We are excited to announce Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts has been accepted for inclusion in the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. This NEA sponsored nonprofit brings films and filmmakers to select cities in states that don’t typically have access to such films. More specifics coming about the film's tour in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, in February 2020. (See schedule below in EVENTS)

SAAM Screening

On March 2, 2019, the film screened for the second time at SAAM, followed by a Q&A with curator Leslie Umberger.

Freep Film Festival

The Freep Film Festival, sponsored by the local newspaper, The Detroit Free Press, was a great success. It was followed by a Q&A moderated by art curator Taylor Renee Aldridge.

Fine Arts Film Festival

Proud to receive the Jury Prize for Freedon at the Fine Arts Film Festival (FAFF)in Venice, CA.

San Francisco Documentary Film Festival

San Francisco, CA, May 29th - June 13th, 2019