The Film

Thank You, Sister is the story of a modern-day Saint who influenced a multitude of creators!

God told her to start and stop.  The documentary will explore how artists affect other artists and transform the world by being true to their authentic selves.  Sister Gertrude Morgan was this type of creator with her paintbrush, tambourine, and voice. This film will communicate that fearlessness through a modern lens. Our vision is to rediscover Sister Gertrude’s voice amongst all the voices that claim her. The film seeks to question through Sister’s story and practicing artists impacted by her, the nature of truth, art, value, and identity. Through the eyes and real-time discovery of a young 16-year-old New Orleans artist at work, we learn about Sister Gertrude Morgan and the alchemy of art. The element of mystery is amplified as we experience and distill the act of creation with artist protagonists, Imani Uzuri, King Britt, & Lesley Dill. The film will make Sister and her work discoverable to a new generation.

The film further establishes a chorus of Creators, Collectors, and Curators including, Dr. Regenia Perry, Ben Jaffe, Elaine Yau, William Fagaly, Lee Friedlander, Hillary & Bradford Keeney, Guy Mendes, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sacha Clay-Borenstein, Tim Motzer, & Ron Rona - which will facilitate a reexamining of Sister’s legacy. Sister Gertrude’s single-mindedness of mission through her personal revelations is the anchor that connects all the narratives in play. Sister Gertrude Morgan’s voice will be amplified by focusing on her words in songs, paintings, and letters allowing the complexity of her personhood to permeate. The film will dismantle and deconstruct what makes art valuable. 

Sister Gertrude Morgan was especially active from 1940-1970s across several New Orleans neighborhoods. By 1973, she was featured in Andy Warhol’s first Interview Magazine.  She was a street preacher in the French Quarter, performed and had her own Tabernacle art booth at the first Jazz Festivals - but ultimately, her existence centers around her prayer room in the lower 9th Ward, where she survived Hurricane Betsy. A site of pilgrimage covered in four-leaf clovers. She was first brought to the art world by dealer, Larry Boreinsten, but he wasn’t the only one advocating for her, Dr. Regenia Perry was her champion and confidant. After Hurrican Katrina, her work was resurrected by DJ King Britt's acclaimed reenvisioning of her original album, Let’s Make a Record, with tracks being featured in films such as Selma and Miami Vice.  Her paintings are currently in the Smithsonian and going to auction at ever-increasing prices.  However, her story of influence is untold through a cross-sectional eye.  Stories are too often claimed and mythologized without consent and lacking understanding. The journey of making this film will expose and open new doors for how we tell American “Outsider” stories and shift the gaze from exterior objectification to interior investigation.

The work is underway and currently in production, click here to donate and learn more.

“The words that she wrote were the words that she lived by. The images that she painted, that was what she believed to be true. Sister is Truth.”

-Ben Jaffe