Way Back Home's subject matter comes from a place that’s close to my own experience. My own grandmother passed away some time ago and her house was passed down to my father. For the past 19 years, we’ve been making trips down to South Carolina, where we would sort, clean, and donate 55 years of accumulated belongings. From the outside, the house looks like how I remember it, but it was the inside that broke my heart. The wallpaper hung off the walls, the wood began to rot, and the ceiling was now exposed to the point where the rafters could be seen. The house wasn’t the only noticeable change I felt while I was down there. The gentrification I witnessed living in the north had made its way down to Charleston. Our block was no longer the Black middle class safe haven it was when my family bought the house in the late 50s. I couldn’t help but ask myself, “would we have to sell?” This movie was born out of that frustration. Like many communities, owning land is a sacred thing. Specifically in the Black community, to have property that can be passed down is one of the few ways we have been able to create generational wealth. It is my hope that this film creates honest conversations on the impacts of gentrification.