Written and directed by Angela Tucker for client REI, this short film titled Migration introduces us to 70-year-old Pepper who rarely leaves her home in New Orleans due to the pandemic. Craving connection, she eventually discovers the meditative aspects of birding and learns that nature can bring people together even when there’s distance.

Tucker and her production company TuckerGurl partnered with REI’s in-house content arm Co-op Studios to bring the short film series The Trees Remember to fruition. Migration is one of the three shorts in the series.

Tucker described The Trees Remember as “a very personal connection of films” and a series which “provides much-needed representation of Black joy and I’m hoping audiences enjoy it.”

Specialty outdoor retailer REI formed Co-op Studios to develop and produce stories that entertain, enrich and explore the power of time spent outside, while complementing REI’s broader climate and racial equity, diversity, and inclusion commitments.

Tucker is a writer, director and Emmy-nominated producer who specializes in narrative and documentary filmmaking. Recent projects include I Can’t Change 400 Years in Four (co-directed with Kristi Jacobson), which streams on Mother Jones and PBS' Independent Lens. In addition to her short documentary All Skinfolk, Ain’t Kinfolk, which aired on PBS’ Reel South, Tucker’s directorial work also includes: All Styles, a dance narrative feature available on Showtime; Black Folk Don’t, a documentary web series featured in Time magazine’s “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life;” and  (A)sexual, a feature-length documentary about people who experience no sexual attraction that streamed on Netflix and Hulu. She was the producer of the Peabody-nominated Belly of the Beast (dir. Erika Cohn) which broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Her production company, TuckerGurl, is passionate about stories that highlight underrepresented communities in unconventional ways. 

Credits

Client REI Creative/Production TuckerGurl Angela Tucker, writer/director; Jeremy Blum, Duane Prefume, producers; Bron Movi, DP; Caroline Russell, production designer; Emily Kingston, art director; Christine M. Hamilton, costume designer. Production Co-op Studios Paolo Mottola, Joe Z. Crosby, exec producers; Hanna Boyd, producer. Editorial Jane Geisler, editor. Music Soltana Isham, original score. Music Production JoyMusic Sound Design/Audio Post Joe Ceponis, sound designer/mixer; Joseph Berg, post sound mixer. Postproduction Duane Prefume, colorist.

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