Believe in Ghosts by Courtney Dixon Movie Analysis

In the harrowing yet empowering story of Samantha Winship, the founder of Mother’s Finest Farm, we see Samantha’s love for nature and admiration for her ancestors being embedded into who she is today. Filmmaker Courtney Dixon creates a heartfelt documentary of Winship and brings light to the unfair disadvantages presently faced by Black farmers in the US. In the documentary ‘Believe in Ghosts’, Winship says, “There is so much history in North Carolina”. Being a woman of color in a land that once considered people of her race to be the enemy is by itself a valiant mission but being a farmer by profession makes it even more grinding. Dixon extraordinarily portrays the current affairs of Black farmers and social injustices in a well-blended documentary of personal narration, statistics, and raw historical footage.

The documentary introduces the subject of farm life through clips of Winship’s farm. Footages of Winship beekeeping, a butterfly sucking nectar, a boy tilling the soil, hens feeding on rice, plants getting watered, a worm crawling on a piece of wood, wagons piled with haystacks, and other farming tools are portrayed. Dixon provides a background context significantly through imagery and lyrical music playing along with the videos. The music plays a significant role in providing a tone to the subject and thus helps the viewer to understand the context at hand. At 2:59 and 6:59, country music is played while showing several aspects of her farm. Winship narrates her story as these clips are being played. She begins by describing a few aspects of her everyday life in the first few minutes of the documentary. Within a few minutes, Winship herself is shown as she talks about her grandmother. The focus shifts to Winship’s grandmother, who is a great source of inspiration to Winship. We understand her passion for her work and where she derives her values and ethics. She is bejeweled with a striking set of ornaments: a pair of hollow, golden earrings in the shape of the African continent, a traditional forehead piece, and a necklace with a silver bee hanging. Her hair is adorned with golden rings which separate her hair into tied sections. Her style speaks for her cause as it embodies a mix of her African heritage and American modernism. She opts to wear a similar pattern of clothing for her interviews on TV, probably to depict her seriousness for what she believes in. 

In almost every clip of Winship talking to the audience directly, she remains void of any expression. She seems to be emotionless through her speech and uses a monotonous way of narration. She is irritated by the government’s policies and chooses to not comment further out of visible frustration. She says, “Pulling up by the bootstraps? Is that how you think it is?”, “You really owe us every damned thing.” The documentary incorporates various narrations of famous Black leaders including Martin Luther King Jr to support the statements. These recordings are played along with footage of the past civil disobedience movements, the Black Lives Matter movement, graffiti, art, and other protests. (11:20) Dixon cleverly includes audio of a gunshot with a blank screen right after the videos of clashes between people and the police force. This could signify that the fights for freedom were brutal, and all that violence ended by bloodshed. Winship’s personal life is shown a couple of times in the documentary. The audience is introduced to the responsible and motherly nature of Winship. For example, clips of Winship reading a bedtime story to her son, conversations with her brother while cooking her garden produce, etc. Dixon targets these parts to her parental audience which allows them to relate to Winship on a more personal note.  

There is a scattered pattern of texts and statistics throughout the documentary. Dixon uses facts and information judiciously to support the intention of the documentary. She brilliantly shows a spinning, brown-shelled egg next to a bowl of white-shelled eggs while displaying important numbers on the screen that highlights unfair advantages of the Whites over the Blacks.