Having heroes who have gone through incredible challenges and inspire you —  even who look like you — and come out the other side of which I can identify with because I too am still struggling with what the characters in the film face — production of these stories matter and it helps sometimes to portray situations in a particular racial lens to say, “Yeah, I understand how hard this can be and you’re going to be okay.”

Similar to strong Black Lead influences such as Mike Colter’s presence in Marvel Universe’s Luke Cage and the Asian community’s recent excitement for “Crazy Rich Asians,” all those years ago, “Last of the Mohicans” was the first time JAaron Anderson really saw an impressionable movie that was similar to his family’s Cherokee history, the story of The Trail of Tears. He also considers Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as Hugh Glass in The Revenant a lasting impression of inspiration.

His great-great-great-grandfather, a political refugee of sorts from America during the colonial revolution and his mother, were driven from their home by invaders (the origin of the ANDERSON  fake last name).

“My passion around supporting immigrants, refugees and confronting racism and the holocaust comes from what my father’s mother passed down to our bloodline about the tales of woe and courage growing up living with my family’s heritage stories of sacrifice as they blazed the Trail of Tears,” said Anderson, who began his career 21 years ago working in agency film, commercial and multimedia working under the famous WKRP in Cincinnati Radio tower.

An established media producer and academic, JAaron has assembled this incredible ensemble of talent around this unsung story we all feel should be heard and never forgotten.