GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Black History Month will include a documentary called “Searching for Augusta Savage," which includes a contribution by Clay High graduate and Lake Asbury cinematographer Nick Solorzano.

The film about Savage will premiere the “American Master Shorts,” which will air during Black History Month in February.

Solorzano is one of three cinematographers on the project. The film will work to uncover the lost art and legacy of Savage, a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance and one of the country’s most influential contributors to Black art. On Thursday, Dec. 14, the crew was at the center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where they interviewed key figures, like the President of the Friends of Augusta Savage, Henrietta Frances and volunteer art teachers Barbara Cornett and Johnny Mathis.

A portion was filmed at the Augusta Savage Arts and Community Center, which lies on the site of her family’s former homestead and Paul Laurence Dunbar High, historic homes on the St. Johns’ River, Spring Park and the Clay County Courthouse.

They finished at the newly remodeled Augusta Savage Mentoring Center, where they filmed children working with clay to create nature-inspired sculptures such as ducks and other small animals with bricks, just like Savage intended.

The filmmakers interviewed the class. Teachers talked of how art was created, how art inspired them and the profound impact that Savage left.

“We’re just trying to showcase the best of what Green Cove Springs has to offer and showcase such an important person of color that really fought against the grain to earn her accomplishments,” Solorzano, 33, said.

The film title was inspired by the quest to find evidence of her clay-inspired sculpture works and career accomplishments, many of which are gone.

Sandra Rattley and Charlotte Mangin, who are the executive producers and directors at Audacious Women Productions, the New York company behind the documentary. Rattley said 70 of Savage’s approximately 160 pieces of art were either lost or destroyed.

Jeffreen Hayes, the film’s narrator and lead investigator, spoke with sources and visited locations influential in Savage’s life and career to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Filming also included locations in Harlem, New York, where she relocated to pursue her art career during the First Great Migration.

However, no hometown was more notable than Green Cove Springs.

“This documentary is a full-circle moment for myself and the community as a whole,” Solorzano said.

The documentary will shed light on Savage’s journey from a small farm to becoming a prominent sculptor in New York. The film explores Savage’s determination to overcome obstacles, including her father’s disapproval of sculpting with clay, to her eventual rise as a renowned artist and advocate for art education.

Cornett, an art instructor at the center, was thrilled the documentary would chronicle the center’s mission.

“It’s really heartwarming to see because the whole mission of everyone volunteering here is to keep the legacy of Augusta Savage alive,” she said.

Student Ansley Bivens was interviewed for the film. Her connection to Savage’s legacy spans three generations. Her grandmother, Felicia Hampshire, served as the first Black Mayor of Green Cove Springs and played a pivotal role in establishing the Museum and Mentoring Center.

“I’m (absolutely) ecstatic about this documentary. I’m amazed, and I’m humbled. This is a big deal not only for Augusta Savage but also for Green Cove Springs as a whole. (The documentary) puts us on the national map. This warms my heart because I fought for this building, and I was born and raised here,” she said.

Hampshire said other trailblazers would be proud, none more than Mary Tuggle, a long-time piano player and first Black teacher to integrate Doctors Inlet Elementary. Tuggle died in 2022. She was 87.

“She was at the groundbreaking ceremony for this building, and I know she would have been so proud,” Hampshire said.

“The past couple of years, there have been a lot of conversations on what history is worth knowing and teaching and which monuments are worth saving and preserving,” Rattley said. “The lost work of Augusta Savage needs to be part of our nation’s story, in terms of art innovation, particularly in her (medium) of sculpture, which was very expressive and emotional in representing black life and culture. She was ahead of her time, and despite the obstacles she had to overcome, she created so much. She was an innovator and creator who shaped and changed the history of art in America. It’s a story that more people should know.”