Ivy Depot is an hour-long video documentary tracing the history of the small community now known as Ivy, Virginia, sandwiched between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the town of Charlottesville--home to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the University of Virginia. The film brings us into the lives of several current community members who are faced with challenges from outside their neighborhood as well as from within their own community.

Ivy Depot focuses on Ivy's black community and its members--many with familial ties dating back to before the Civil War-- and touches on their intersection with the newer white Ivy residents, many of whom have been drawn to the area for its pastoral and historic charm. The film traces the black families' roots back to the time when their ancestors were not free and forward to the present day as their tight-knit community faces the challenges of rapid growth and development in and around the community.  For the filmmakers, the 'discovery' of a slave graveyard on property purchased by an industrial construction company looking to build in the heart of Ivy brought the conflict between growth and historic preservation in the community into stark relief, and served as the point of departure for the process of research and exploration that would inspire this documentary project. The film will juxtapose this community's rich history with different community-members' responses to the effects of 'progress' on this small southern hamlet. This process has been a journey of discovery: into history, present day ways of life, and the ways in which individuals view their place in history and within a community.

-The Ivy Depot website serves as background to the film and a history of Ivy, with an emphasis on Ivy's black community, as well as an emphasis on the current controversy over the industrial company attempting to build in Ivy.
-As Ivy Depot is a work in progress, this site will continue to be updated with project news and more resources on the community, so check back frequently!
-Watch for hyperlinks throughout the site to the pages of this site and others.
-Watch for clips from the documentary as well as outtakes on the Community Portraits Page.