POST ATLANTIC
The Art of Dewey Crumpler

2025, 29 Minutes
Produced and Directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
Edited by Gregory Scharpen

What is it to resist?… to persist in opposition to those in power? POST ATLANTIC explores the visionary world of legendary African American painter and philosopher Dewey Crumpler as he connects the slave trade to modern globalization and demonstrates what it means to be a working artist with a conscience in today’s society.

Dewey was a prominent voice in our recent film TOWN DESTROYER – a study of the culture war over New Deal murals about George Washington – Indian killer, slave owner, real estate speculator, and first among the Founders. In POST ATLANTIC, Dewey re-weaves together the threads of African thought through beautiful, often abstract paintings that address the Atlantic slave trade, resistance, and globalization.  A crucial figure in the Black Arts Movement from his youth working with the Black Panther Party to his teaching young luminaries like Kehinde Wiley and Adrian Burrell at the San Francisco Art Institute, Dewey has challenged orthodoxies, exclusions, and foregone conclusions. POST ATLANTIC tells Crumpler’s story and follows him in his studio, at home, around the Bay, and at a recent high-profile opening of his new work – “Post Atlantic” – at a New York gallery. The film is not hagiography, but a portal through which we see a creator engaging with history and the future, and persisting against adversity.

Distributed by Bullfrog Films. To preview or purchase: https://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/post.html Educational/Institutional, community group, and home video rates available.

Also available on PBS Passport for public television members.