SPIA’s mission is the documentation, preservation and dissemination of Cape Verdean-American and Cape Verdean history, culture, and traditions through films, videos, and multi-platform productions that explore the multiplicity of voices, images and stories that are rarely seen or heard.
Dr. Andrade-Watkins documentary work includes the feature length documentary Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?: A Cape Verdean American Story, (2006) about the Cape Verdean community in the Fox Point section of Providence, RI that was forcibly displaced by the urban renewal and gentrification. Other documentaries include: Building a Legacy, (2006) a short documentary on a pioneering Cape Verdean businessman; Cape Verde Independence July 5 and 6, 1975, (2005) a powerful short documentary from archival footage on the actual moment of independence in Cape Verde; and The Spirit of Cape Verde, (1986) a half-hour documentary celebrating the bonds between New England, Cape Verde and President Aristides Pereira’s historical first visit to the United States in 1983.
Dr. Andrade-Watkins was an Associate Producer on Odyssey, a National PBS anthropology and archaeology documentary series, and Assistant to the Producer on Sankofa, an internationally acclaimed feature film on slavery by filmmaker Haile Gerima.
Dr. Andrade-Watkins is an Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts, at Emerson College in Boston, MA.
