The Production:

 Signpost’s producer located a refurbished 1950’s era transit bus that the City of Montgomery put back in service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. The team traveled to Montgomery to shoot video recreations of bus scenes described by our interviewees.

Additional recreation film scenes were shot at the Parish Courthouse in Clinton, Louisiana, Second Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, and on Southern University’s beautiful campus.

Additionally, the producer scoured public records and newspaper archives across the country and interviewed dozens of witnesses and participants to uncover nearly forgotten details of the boycott

The production team also worked with Baton Rouge native, Grammy-winning Blues artist and actor Chris Thomas King who created the program’s incredible musical score. King skillfully put together a winning combination of period Blues music that vividly reflects the flourishing African American community in Baton Rouge and Scotlandville in the 40s and 50s, gospel sounds which reflect the strong religious community, and a more modern beat that brings the lessons of the boycott to a contemporary audience.

Production Team:

Christina Melton is Signpost’s Director, Producer and Co-Writer. Most recently she was awarded the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award and an Honorable Mention from the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Awards for producing Signpost. The documentary also recently won Best Historical Documentary at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. In 2004, she received the Alfred J. Dupont-Columbia Award for Journalism as producer of Episode Five of LPB’s critically acclaimed Louisiana: A History documentary series. Her other awards include a Mid-South Regional Emmy Award, an Associated Press Award, and two Silver Telly Awards.

Keith Crews is an award winning staff videographer and editor for LPB. His recent LPB programs, Living with Cancer and Kids Trying to Trim Down have broadcast nationally and earned a National Emmy nomination and two Telly Awards. Crews was also instrumental in the filming and production of LPB’s six-episode landmark documentary series Louisiana: A History.

Chris Thomas King is now one of most recognized and successful blues artist of his generation. The multi Grammy award winning musician and actor grew up as a child-prodigy guitarist learning the blues at the feet of some of the music’s masters at the Baton Rouge , Louisiana club Tabby’s Blues Box, owned by his father, Rockin’ Tabby Thomas. King has written a screenplay based on his life story, also titled “Why My Guitar Screams and Moans,” currently being shopped to publishers and television networks. Mr. King has continued to develop his own musical craft in soundtracks from the hit movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” and most recently on Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed PBS documentary on the Blues.

C.E. Richard is an educator, a writer and a filmmaker, specializing in Louisiana studies. His most recent project 0is the six-hour LPB produced series Louisiana: A History, broadcast September 14-19 th statewide. Richard has been honored with a CINE Golden Eagle Award for promotion of the series on PBS in 2002. His body of work includes a number of nationally broadcast documentaries, such as Against the Tide: The Story of the Cajun People of Louisiana, which won “Best Historical Documentary” in 2000 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Richard teaches Advanced Screenwriting at Louisiana State University, and served as Tulane University’s John Percy Dyer Professor of Media Arts in 2001. He co-wrote the script for Signpost with Producer, Christina Melton.

Ambassador James Joseph is Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies and Executive Director of the United States - Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke University. In 1995, he became the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. Ambassador Joseph is a native of Opelousas, Louisiana and a graduate of Southern University. Ambassador Joseph has served four U. S. Presidents, and from 1982-1995, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Foundations, an international organization of more than 1900 foundations and corporate giving programs. He has also been a host, commentator and frequent guest on National Public Radio. Ambassador Joseph will narrate Signpost.