Greater is a short experimental documentary that captures endangered Black family archives in Detroit before they disappear. Centered on the Apex Bar, a Black-owned business in Paradise Valley, the project gathers oral histories, family photographs, street sounds, and material memory to preserve stories that were never meant for institutional archives but sustained entire communities.
What makes this project awesome is its urgency and inventiveness. Rather than waiting for perfect conditions or institutional permission, the film intervenes now, recording elders while they are still here and activating memory through beauty, texture, and sound. Interviews unfold alongside poetic visual sequences using textiles, light, and abstraction, allowing history to be felt, not just explained.
The $1,000 grant would be used immediately to support travel to interview elders, digitize family photographs, and capture sound and video at meaningful locations tied to the Apex Bar. Jaylen Baity is a local videographer that will shoot this project. All of these funds will be allocated to him. This small but catalytic support would help secure fragile stories at a critical moment, transforming personal memory into a shared cultural artifact.
This project believes that preserving Black memory is not only necessary, but radical. It fills the gap between what was lived and what was recorded, ensuring that these stories are not lost to time, redevelopment, or silence. That act of care, urgency, and imagination is what makes this project awesome.