Talking NC Media

This Side of the River

This Side of the River is now available on DVD!
Click here to order.

This Side of the River: Self-Determination and Survival in the Oldest Black Town in America is the most recent production released by NCLLP in a series of acclaimed documentaries on the rich culture and heritage of North Carolina communities. The film incorporates interviews with Princeville residents and North Carolina historians to tell the story of Princeville , N.C. Settled by freed slaves in 1865, Princeville was the first town in the United States incorporated by African Americans, in 1885. The story of Princeville’s survival through racial prejudice, economic hardship and near-permanent destruction by the flood from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, is an important and previously untold piece of American history. This is a story of African people proudly transforming the discarded land of their captors into a safe haven for resistance and self-expression. Within an ever-changing southern Black identity, the people of Princeville demonstrated communal support through religious, political and economic self-determination.

The film was co-produced and co-directed by Ryan Rowe and Drew Grimes.

PRESS

"heartfelt, exhaustively researched
and ably executed"
- David Fellerath, Independent Weekly

Check out the review of This Side of the River in the March 29 edition of The Independent Weekly!

Read articles about the recent premieres of This Side of the River in Princeville and in Durham, NC:

From The News and Observer
(Raleigh, NC)
February 28
[ PDF ] [ link ]

From The Daily Southerner
(Tarboro, NC)
February 24
[ PDF ]

From The Daily Southerner
(Tarboro, NC)
February 27
[ link ]

From The Chronicle
(Duke Univ., Durham, NC)
February 23
[ PDF ]

From The Daily Southerner
(Tarboro, NC)
February 22
[ PDF ] [ link ]

For background information about Princeville, see this article published by the NC Humanities Council.

For more about the February 28th screening at the
Hayti Heritage Center:

Download the flyer [PDF]

Download the press release [Word doc]