Chicago-based producer Floyd Webb (The Search for Count Dante, 2014) created this project to re-capture the lost histories of global cross-cultural interaction, 16th century Jesuit missionaries and the forging of a unified Japanese nation.

Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta, and raised on Chicago’s South and West Sides, Floyd Webb is a filmmaker, producer, curator, publisher, and photographer whose career spans more than four decades across cinema, journalism, new media, and international cultural exchange.

Webb is the founder of Blacknuss Network and Blacknuss.tv, co-founder of Black Filmmaker Magazine, and founder of the Blacklight Festival of International Black Cinema, one of the pioneering showcases for African and African Diaspora cinema in North America. His work has focused on connecting artists, filmmakers, and audiences across cultures while documenting overlooked histories and emerging voices.

His producing credits include Associate Producer of Daughters of the Dust, Chicago Producer for the PBS American Masters documentary The World of Nat King Cole, Associate Producer of the Indian films Space Moms and Public Toilet Africa. Co-Executive Producer of the feature drama Legally Drugged. Over the years he has collaborated with filmmakers including Julie Dash, John Akomfrah, Spike Lee, St. Clair Bourne, and Jean-Pierre Bekolo.

Webb has served as a programming consultant and advisor to international film festivals, including the Zanzibar International Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival, and currently serves on the boards of  Kartemquin Films and  Chicago Filmmakers.

His current projects include A Good Eye: Capturing Joy, a documentary on generations of Black photojournalists; and a feature film by Mandla Dube, Yasuke: Way of the Butterfly, an international film project exploring the life, legacy, and global significance of Yasuke, the African samurai who served under Oda Nobunaga in sixteenth-century Japan.

Through filmmaking, publishing, and cultural programming, Webb continues to build bridges between Africa, the African Diaspora, Asia, and the wider world, using storytelling to illuminate histories that challenge conventional narratives.

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Chude Mondlane  – Historical Research & Music Director –
Chude is a cultural worker and researcher with a background in Anthropology, Music and dance. Receiving a Bachelor of Arts at Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH (2001)she was a recipient of the Mellon Fellowship Award.

Chude is also founder of NKATEKO Productions an audio and video digital content production, distribution, publishing and marketing company for Women Musicians and Artists from Mozambique and the Afrodiaspora urban music scene.