Walls of Respect: Norman Parish and the Parish Art Gallery addresses cultural obstacles that have historically limited the pathways of African American artists and pursues one cultural institution that exhibited primarily African diasporic artists and artists of color beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the 2000s – the Parish Gallery in Georgetown, Washington DC.

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The documentary considers structural limitations on African Americans and their trajectories as artists and simultaneously provides a narrative focused on moments of advancement. It incorporates interviews with many of the artists who exhibited at the gallery, along with professionals from the Smithsonian archive and the Art Institute of Chicago, to address the significance the gallery's founder, Norman Parish, had on artists' careers and the DC culture.

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Shot before and during the Covid health crisis, Walls of Respect resonates not only with the politics of the Black Lives Matter movement but also with the pandemic by containing an aesthetic that reflects the necessitated virtual production conditions. The documentary is well suited for broad viewership as well as educational, activist and artistic audiences, as it integrates artwork and artist’s perspectives, and places creative processes within the social, political and artistic movements from which they arise.

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The documentary brings you to Richard Hunt who speaks from his sculpture studio in Chicago and Africobra artist Wadsworth Jarrell who sits in conversation with the documentary team surrounded by his paintings, to Cynthia Farrell Johnson who connects her multimedia depictions with the people she encountered as an international diplomat and Oggie Ogburn who holds up images of the many famed musicians he photographed for the entertainment industry. Walls of Respect is visually rich and incorporates work from exhibitions and promotional materials.