A new documentary from local filmmaker Erik Duda exploring the process and impact of the University of Virginia’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers has been released, providing insights into the creation of one of the most important public monuments in America since the opening of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982.

Titled The Lives Between the Lines, Duda’s documentary was included as part of this year’s Virginia Film Festival and offers a look into the implementation, design, and eventual construction of the monument, which, unfortunately, had to open in a subdued ceremony last year owing to health concerns related to the pandemic.

The memorial was first commissioned in 2013 as part of the UVA President’s Commission on Slavery and the University, which eventually led to the formation of a Community Engagement Committee comprised of descendants of the enslaved communities in the area. Many members of those communities were forced into developing Thomas Jefferson’s plan for the 2,000-acre campus (the core Academical Village grounds of which today stands as a UNESCO World Heritage site) and therefore became the focus of the project that was designed by Höweler + Yoon in collaboration with architect, historian, and UVA alumna Mabel O. Wilson, artist Eto Otitigbe, and School of Architecture professors Gregg Bleam and Frank Dukes.

“It was time to unearth the history beneath our feet and to bring the community back,” committee member DeTeasa Brown Gathers said during a Q&A that took place after the film’s first screening on Sunday.

By creating a physical memorial to the individuals who suffered under slavery, UVA set a precedent for other schools like Georgetown and Harvard that are concurrently reckoning with their own past participation in the institution. Rendered brilliantly in local Virginia Mist granite, the 80-foot diameter monument includes the known names of some 578 former slaves, along with almost 4,000 marks indicating those who remain unknown, and an engraving of a former slave named Isabella Gibbons, who would later become a prominent local schoolteacher.

The monument, therefore, stands as “something that’s a living force … a piece of love being given back to the community,” as general contractor Mike Spence so aptly described. Since opening, it has become the site of many protests and other events taking place on campus and will doubtless serve untold numbers of future students as a font for community activities oriented around impactful social justice causes.

“I can’t wait to see what comes next,” one audience member said, speaking of its potential as a centerpiece for activism. More information about the memorial can be found here.