From the pews of a church where white deacons once refused to seat African Americans, a gr
oup of Black singers in Alabama reminds us why preserving our memories of this historic ye
ar is vital — even if we'd rather just leave 2020 behind.They're singing "Auld Lang Syne,"
the Scottish ballad synonymous with ringing in the new year. It begins with this line: "S
hould auld acquaintance be forgot / And never brought to mind?"That question — of whether
to forget the past — is central to the art film, For The Sake Of Old Times, debuting on NP
R this week."It's certainly my tendency — and maybe our natural human tendency — to want t
o rush forward and put this year behind us," explains Tyler Jones, the film's director. "B
ut that may do a disservice, I think, to our memories and those who went before us."Produc
ed by a diverse group of filmmakers assembled by 1504, a studio based in Birmingham, Ala.,
For The Sake Of Old Times pairs the performance of "Auld Lang Syne" with archival footage
from 2020, particularly of the summer's racial justice protests.Among them: a vigil and p
rotest in Chattanooga, Tenn., the removal of a statue honoring Stonewall Jackson, the Conf
ederate general, in Richmond, Va., and the dismantling of a monument commemorating the Con
federacy in Birmingham.And like nearly everything in 2020, the pandemic cast a shadow over
the project — from the production itself, which the director says received third-party ce
rtification for adhering to safety protocols, to the content and the filmmakers' approach.
"We were aware going into the project that 2020 has disproportionately impacted communitie
s of color in ways that I will never understand," Jones says.The coronavirus is infecting
and killing people of color at higher rates, while the economic fallout of the pandemic is
exacerbating existing wealth inequality."So, we wanted to also honor the racial reckoning
of the year and to amplify community voices," he says.The film also draws parallels betwe
en the events of 2020 and those that occurred during the civil rights movement.Through his
studio's collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative — a nonprofit committed to endin
g mass incarceration — Jones has "learned about how Black churches played an integral part
in organizing, in strategy and in healing during the civil rights movement, while ... mos
t white churches stayed silent or took an oppositional role."One way the film nods to that
history is where it was recorded: a building that once housed a church that refused to se
at Black worshippers at the height of desegregation during the 1960s."To be together like
that in a church that we couldn't even sit in. You understand what that means? That's a lo
t," says Carrie Davis, a singer, songwriter and music director who lives in the area.Davis
helped the studio gather community members to perform "Auld Lang Syne" and arranged the p
iece to reflect their voices, including her own.While some of the film's historical tribut
es were intentional — like its location — others were coincidental. Such was the case with
the oldest singer who performed, Eloise Ford Gaffney.As the filmmakers and singers got to
know Gaffney, they learned that she fought for voting rights for African Americans and wa
s jailed for protesting during the civil rights movement.Gaffney was also classmates and f
riends with Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, two of the four African American girls ki
lled when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.The youngest of t
he victims, Denise McNair, was 11 when she died — which is, coincidentally, the same age a
s Jaxon Moore, the first and last person to appear in For The Sake of Old Times.For Tyler
Jones, the director, part of the film's symbolism is Moore "drawing on the community voice
s that are surrounding him as the song goes on.""But at the end, he's the one that's movin
g forward. He's walking out of the church. And I think that it's really the younger genera
tion that we now are having to follow," Jones says.There's a verse in "Auld Lang Syne" tha
t Jones says captures his wish for how the nation approaches the road ahead: "We'll take a
cup o' kindness yet / For days of auld lang syne.""My hope is that kindness sort of is th
e root of how we move forward," he says. "And certainly, I want the film to be an encourag
ement for that."It's a hope that also resonates with Carrie Davis, the local singer and mu
sic director."Together in love, that's the way we're going to make this work. That's the o
nly way we're going to move forward," Davis says. "Not forgetting the past — remembering t
he past, but moving forward."