George L. Wingard’s growing interest in the life and times of Colleton County has resulted in “We Came A Long Way by Faith: Catholic Hill and St. James The Greater Catholic Church.”
The documentary is the second that Wingard has done in the county in his role as administrative manager of the USC’s Savannah River Archaeological Research Program of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology facility in New Ellenton.
About five years ago, Wingard was invited to participate in an event at the Colleton County Museum and Farmers Market for a viewing of his documentary about Dave the Potter, an African American slave from Edgefield who produced distinctive pieces of pottery.
The local museum is one of a handful of museums that includes one of Dave’s distinctive pieces in its collection.
“While I was there,” he said, “I met Dr. Sarah Miller from Salkehatchie. Sarah took me out and introduced me to Pon Pon. I ended up doing a documentary on Pon Pon called ‘The Burnt Church: An Exploration of The Pon Pon Chapel of Ease’.”
It was near the end of production on that video when Wingard was out shooting some b-roll when it started raining. (B-roll videoes are shots that can be used to illustrate the topic.)
When the rain came, George thought his day in Colleton County was over and he would return to Aiken County.
He was wrong. “Sarah drove by, stopped and told me the story of the church, the congregation and how they had been forgotten for 40 years.
St. James congregation spent 40 years worshiping without a priest to guide them. The Charleston Diocese “kind of forgot about them,” Wingard said.
“That was what really amazed me,” he added. “For part of those 40 years, they were enslaved. Once freed, they continued to hold to their faith.”
That faith was the story Wingard was compelled to tell. “You see that faith in the people. That willingness to tell their story, to want to have their story told.
“Everyone that I spoke with talked about having been there so long. Continuing to hang on the faith of their forefathers who had started that church.
“I came back and did a little research and really could not find anything. It is a wonderful story that had never been told on film as far as I knew,” he said.
“I reached out to Dr. Alison McLetchie (assistant professor at South Carolina State University and church member) and told her I would love to tell the story.” He explained that he would not make any money on it, as Savannah River Archaeology is a non-profit.
“She said, ‘That’s great, we are looking to do something for the 200th anniversary in 2020’.”
“I went down in the summer of 2018 and spoke to the congregation. I asked if they had a problem with a white Methodist telling their black Catholic story,” he said. “No, we would love for you to try it and see what you can do,” they told Wingard.
“Unfortunately, the events of the 200th anniversary had to be canceled. We wanted to premiere it down there, but we didn’t get to, so we are trying to use social media to tell the story until things get back to normal get back down there.” The video can be viewed at www.srarp.org/videos.
Wingard started the video in January of 2019 and finished it April of 2020. Much of the time involved setting up the many interviews.
He said his previous films took about eight months to complete.
When the 2020 Christmas season arrived, he was ready to begin editing the 17 hours of raw footage.
Ten of those hours involved Wingard taking himself out of the story — gone were Wingard asking the interviewees questions and the conversations not germane to the topic.
“I wanted the story to flow without me asking questions,” Wingard explained.
