Annapolis chef Craig Sewell has not always been a filmmaker, but an interest in food, heritage and family turned him into one as he released the documentary “Grandma’s Hands” in March.
“Grandma’s Hands” shares the stories of six families in Southern Maryland who opened their kitchens to Sewell. They cooked recipes that have passed through generations and shared the history of their food, families and heritage.
The documentary film premiered on March 19 at the Governor Calvert House in Annapolis.
“Food is a very powerful communicator and connector,” Sewell said. “I recognized through my years of cooking with and for people the importance that food plays in our past and our heritage.”
Sewell owned the Annapolis restaurant A Cook’s Café for 16 years until its closure in 2017. He also taught cooking classes and catered out of his restaurant, he said.
With his new film, he is no longer teaching people how to cook, but how to use cooking as a means of connection.
“If you ask anyone about their grandmother, chances are one of those stories are going to end up in a kitchen,” Sewell said. “This documentary is more about those stories than it is about a particular recipe. The recipe just unlocks the story.”
Sewell received a grant from the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area to create the film. The local heritage area group, established in January 2023, is one of only 62 National Heritage Areas in the country, said Executive Director Lucille Walker.
Sewell and Walker discussed the idea for the film, and Walker was on quickly board.
“It’s about our stories, our foodways, our folkways, our culture, and for me this was a wonderful way to highlight it,” Walker said of the film.
Franklin Robinson was one of the people who shared a recipe and family history with Sewell for the film. Robinson, who now runs Serenity Farm in Benedict, has lived in Southern Maryland his entire life.
The land of Robinson’s farm along the Patuxent River was once part of the home of the Piscataway Conoy Indigenous people, he said. Sewell highlights in the film that cooking has been a part of Robinson’s land for hundreds of generations.
“It’s just but a mere second in the huge timeline in the history of this place,” Robinson said of his family’s ownership of the farm in the film.
For Robinson, cooking is both in the land and in his blood. He learned to cook from his grandmothers, and plans on continuing the tradition.
“I have to teach the next generation, much like I would watch my grandmothers and my mother cook,” Robinson said. “I want to pass this on. It’s a way to honor our grandmothers.”
Sewell, who views kitchens as “the heart of the home,” hopes that hearing people’s stories about their family’s recipes and traditions encourages viewers to connect with their own family stories.
“And if they don’t have stories, then let’s start making stories,” Sewell said.
Sewell will host another screening of “Grandma’s Hands” in Southern Maryland in early summer, he said.
For more information about the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area, go to destinationsouthernmaryland.com.
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