"Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts" TV premiere spotlights Montgomery artist on April 17

A documentary spotlighting the life of artist Bill Traylor from Montgomery will premiere on WORLD Channel on April 17 at 8 p.m. 

Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 and died in 1949. He was not native to Montgomery but moved there in his later life where he produced art based on Black culture and experience in the American South. 

The documentary, "Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts", was directed by Jeffrey Wolf and executive produced by documentarian Sam Pollard. 

"Through archival footage and photographs, music, narration and Traylor’s own paintings, the film explores both Traylor’s artistic creations and his personal life — a life that survived enslavement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Great Migration’s shift from agrarian to urban communities for many Black Americans," 

"The documentary offers an insightful look at a man who, living in a time of accepted racial inequities, used his talent to capture and document the culture, celebrations, fears and customs of Black life on the plantation and in the city."

The film is available for streaming on worldchannel.org,  blackpublicmedia.org, WORLD’s YouTube Channel, Black Public Media’s YouTube Channel, PBS.org and the PBS app.