As an Atlanta native, I grew up surrounded by stories and folklore tied to Southern land. If it wasn't about the mystical Appalachia, then it was about the haunted Lake Lanier and the town that now sits beneath it. During my sophomore year, I felt homesickness deeper than distance. I felt a pull towards my roots–towards the history and spiritual practices that shape my identity. Drawing from that connection, I created an animated trailer inspired by the true story of Oscarville, a once-thriving Black community violently erased and later submerged beneath what is now Lake Lanier in Forsyth County.
Soulaan offers a glimpse of the first encounter between Attie and Gullah, two people blessed with the gift of conjure as they search for a way to get Attie home–a home lost to a flood sixty years earlier. This project reanimates displaced histories and honors the cultural memory, Hoodoo traditions, and ancestral veneration that continue to sustain Southern Black communities.