Movie Set Depicting Hold of Slave Ship Donated to Center

When film director and writer Joel Marsden first heard about Watts, his reaction was unfortunately typical--fear.

“The name ‘Watts’ has conjured up bad images that have traveled the world over,” said Marsden, 27, who now sees the Watts neighborhood in a completely different light.

Marsden, who recently completed his first feature film, “Ill Gotten Gains,” a story about an uprising on a slave ship bound for America, has become so taken with Watts that he has volunteered at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee Center (WLCAC) to provide a video workshop for students interested in film.

Born in New York City and raised in Zurich, Switzerland, Marsden now lives in Silver Lake. He became aware of the Watts Center through a co-worker on his film and was quickly impressed.

“It’s incredible,” Marsden said. “The WLCAC is one of the few places in Los Angeles where there is a true feeling of community.”

In addition to the workshop, Marsden has donated his film set--the hold of a slave ship--to the center. The set is on permanent display in Watts.

“This is a work of art in progress,” said the center’s Tim Watkins, adding that local artist Charles Dickson is creating 30 sculptures representing slaves that will be placed in the hold. Five sculptures are now in place and the project is expected to be completed by midsummer.

“I think it is a necessary project,” said Dickson, 49, the center’s artist-in-residence. “Young and old people need to see that passage of agony.”

Dickson said several young people have volunteered to have body casts made for the sculptures. “Just for them to stay still for two hours [for the body cast] gave them a small appreciation of what agony it must have been for slaves to stay still in a ship for six months,” Dickson said.