Macon Magazine

76 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2025 documentary's international premiere this August during the 20th anniversary edition of the Macon Film Festival, reminding the Paytons and all present of the power that the arts can have towards building bridges. "This documentary is needed to start conversations," Khary said, in reference to racial trauma and reconciliation towards healing. Not only is the movie getting others talking, it's contributing to a creative transformation of its subject. "One of the things that I love about this fi lm is that my mother, as an artist, really has gone through a transitional phase through the making of this fi lm. Her art has changed. She did a lot of portraiture over the last 40 years, and she's found her way back to a more, I guess, speaking her heart and her truth through her paintings," he told Macon Magazine from his home in Los Angeles. Gwendolyn added that the documentary parallels her life's journey. Early on, she was optimistic to learn about the depth of interpreting art. "And so I think when I started at Mercer – especially just looking at the diff erent occupations that we were introduced to through the Upward Bound program, I think that being a medical illustrator, I would've never known that was such a thing," she said. "But [I was] learning about that, learning about some of the African- American sculptresses that had literally started being sculptors here in America, but because of the racial atmosphere had moved to Paris or Mexico, like Elizebeth Catlett. It was inspiring to learn about these diff erent women on my own while starting school at Mercer. That was amazing to be able to start a journey like that." She added that doing the fi lm was the fi rst time she realized what had happened to her artistic career after being shut down by the racist encounter, and that it reminded her that she "literally prayed to fi nd that person again." Gwendolyn gets justice The movie starts with challenging experiences, but follows a trajectory of hope. The prayers Gwendolyn sent up came back down during a fate-fi lled chance conversation she had with Sarah Gardner, a Mercer history professor, at Atlanta's airport in 2019. During a travel delay for both, they discovered their shared connection to Mercer, including Gwendolyn's experience as a student. Gardner was angered and disappointed by what she heard and promised Gwendolyn she would share her story with those who could right the wrong at the university. During a meeting with members of LEFT A still from the fi lm shows a headline about Gwendolyn in the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Mercer's faculty, Gardner convinced the group unanimously to review Gwendolyn's transcript. After confi rming the account that Gwendolyn had indeed completed her art coursework, the faculty facilitated her long-overdue senior art show in 2020, fulfi lling the requirements for her to receive her art major. It was nearly 50 years later, but for Gwendolyn, it was "the perfect time." The exhibit opened her up to more transformative work in the visual arts, with her racial reconciliation group, and now making the documentary. Gardner sees what happened as a full circle moment. "We have an obligation to each other. When something isn't right, then one should do their best to right that wrong," she said. "The arts give us perspective. Art can be therapeutic. Gwendolyn always had her art." Khary noted that despite the Mercer setback, his mother's identity as an artist has been integral to his life, and essential to capturing her story for fi lm. "I tell myself all the time, I always ask for a job that feeds my belly and a job that feeds my soul. I feel like mom always had a job as far as feeding her soul fi rst," he said. But the events of the past few years have reinvigorated Gwendolyn's work. "I think that what happened is that we were telling the story, and

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