BHM… Black History is Me
At the Dover Street Group, we advocate for sharing personal stories that move us. When Daniel Carter, the Leader of Employee Engagement with Amazon’s BEN [Black Employee Network] UK came to us at Dover Street Productions looking to showcase a few London-based Amazonians, within the BEN UK collective, we felt tremendous responsibility as a team and genuine honour to ensure we did the best we could for the project.
With what started as a loose idea to take portrait photographs, in the Dover Street Studio, of BEN UK members, quickly spiralled into the larger than life Black History is Me campaign. Alongside the leading documentary, Black History is Me, Dover Street Studio produced a short BTS documentary highlighting the process of making this extraordinary project which all launched on October 2nd. The core Black History is Me documentary followed the stories of Tochim Eduputa and Ellis Gooden. Tochim being a Nigerian-born woman who for over ten years has worked through the ranks at Amazon and now runs a team across Europe as a leader of consumer brands, and Ellis, a half-English, half-Jamaican, intern at Amazon.
Both Amazonians took us through the incredibly emotional journeys they and their families respectively went through to build the lives they have in London today. Tochim’s infectious energy lit up every shoot we did, on location or in the studio – she shared wonderfully moving stories and tributes to her Nigerian parents who showed her how celebratory and vibrant it is to be within the Igbo tribe. Ellis, similarly, shared the pains he went through during the COVID-19 pandemic and how tumultuous it was for him to be separated from his family while his father was tragically diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately for all of us, we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gooden at the launch event on October 2nd. Ellis’ gentle and excitable nature brought such animation to his stories of growing up half-Jamaican, making him the perfect counterpart for the short film.
Tell Me Where You Come From
In tandem with the documentaries, Dover Street Record’s own music duo, Nomad X, released a commissioned song for the project titled, Tell Me Where You Come From; an uplifting fusion of pop, afro and rock.
It was an absolute privilege to partner with BEN UK for this moving and electric project. Watch the documentary and the BTS short film online now. Stream all three editions of Tell Me Where You Come From now.
