"Every time I do a reenactment, I just go back to my ancestors, and what they must have been through."
— Nancy Whittle
Living Harriet Tubman chronicles the story of Nancy Whittle, a Fresno-based social worker who has spent more than thirty years portraying Harriet Tubman at Civil War reenactments across California. For Nancy, whose grandparents were born into slavery, this history is deeply personal, and its education remains sorely necessary if American democracy is to be maintained.
Civil War reenactments have often been organized by groups sympathetic to the Confederacy, so Nancy feels a responsibility to breathe life into the words and deeds of Harriet Tubman so as to inject an African-American perspective into these events where history can still be a site of debate. But as she nears retirement, controversy arises when a local Black Lives Matter chapter protests a Civil War reenactment where Nancy is scheduled to perform. In response, she organizes a counter-performance depicting an enslaved woman's escape from a plantation, confronting the whitewashed narratives that often shape these spaces.
The film follows Nancy through this process while also tracing her personal connection to Tubman's legacy, including a journey to Underground Railroad sites in Maryland. Through these parallel threads, Living Harriet Tubman explores the resistance Nancy has faced, as well as that which she hopes to embody, and the lasting impact of keeping Black history visible in a moment when its meaning remains deeply contested.
FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT: "We made this film during a time when the telling of American history feels especially fraught. Nancy's work demonstrates that representing the past isn't neutral; it requires courage and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths."— Brandon Tauszik
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