WWE champion Ettore ‘Big E’ Ewen always wanted to use his platform to educate and inform the masses. So during the pandemic, he teamed up with journalist Andreas Hale and narrative designer Jonathan Davenport to produce an animated feature about the life of Ruby Bridges.
“Bridges” is a family-friendly short film that gives viewers a look at Bridges who made history in 1960 by becoming the first Black student to integrate an all-white school in New Orleans.
The short film follows a 12-year-old girl, Maya, who battles social anxiety and has trouble connecting with other kids. Maya is introduced to the story of Bridges during a field trip at a futuristic Black History Museum.
Grammy-nominee artist Rapsody provides an original song for the film.
“Bridges” originally premiered at the Urbanworld Film Festival and has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Big E recently spoke with ADW to share how this film came to life and the importance of Black history, beyond the month of February.
What inspired you and your team to create an animated feature of Ruby Bridges’ story?
It all really began for us around the death of George Floyd. I kept thinking man, it’s a shame that so many of us know so little about Black history and those who came before us. So many of us are raised thinking that successful Black people are only athletes and entertainers What better story to tell than the story of Ruby Bridges. For one you have a six-year old Black girl in 1960, who was just simply trying to go to school. And the hate she received, all of the anger, and she was just an adorable little girl. And now in 2024, she’s still here. She’s with us. She’s younger than both my parents. You see these black and white pictures. And too often we think these are things that happened 100 years ago. I can’t relate to it. But no, you have to understand like she’s in her 60s. She is not that old. This was not that long ago.
There’s a movement across the nation to ban Black history books in schools. Why is it important to continue to tell Black stories?
These stories are still pressing. I live in the state of Florida, a state where they’re trying to erase our history. They’re trying to push Black history to the side so we don’t remember these things at all. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to continue to tell these stories to honor Ruby Bridges and others. We have to make sure we don’t forget their story, that we don’t forget their pain. What they went through to make our lives better. And so we don’t regress back to that period of just constant racial strife. We still have a lot of work to do. But I think it’s on us to continue these stories. It’s on our generation to keep their stories alive, and to continue telling their stories.
Rapsody provides an original song. How did that collaboration come about?
Hats off to Rhapsody who is an incredible talent. She’s amazing. We were so blessed and fortunate. She already had a friendship with Andreas who reached out to her. She made an original song for us telling the story of Ruby Bridges. Because what I love about music and hip hop, especially hip-hop, is the language of our culture. And what I love is there are songs where lyrics still rattle around in your brain. And my thought was man wouldn’t that be amazing? If there’s a catchy, amazing song about Ruby Bridges, and kids are walking away knowing her story. And they can’t even help it because the song is so powerful. It’s so good. And I think it’s such an incredible tool to teach using hip-hop. I think too often we’re just trying to tell these stories in a way that might not be as accessible to young people. And our hope is to share this story to people of all ages. We have a a nine-foot tall, futuristic robot. We have this futuristic museum with the ‘Hall of Heroes.’ So we want to make this story accessible and fun. When you walk away, hopefully you’re touched. You’ve learned something about this incredible story of Ruby Bridges.
View “Bridges” Below:
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