Louis Armstrong daughter film screening in St Pete

Green Book of Tampa Bay and Woodson African American Museum bring
EMMY winner, Louis Armstrong’s daughter home with “Little Satchmo”

[TAMPA, Florida] – Louis Armstrong’s secret daughter reveals a new side of the music and cultural icon’s personal life in the acclaimed PBS film Little Satchmo, winner of the Southeast EMMY Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary, which comes to Studio
@ 620, 620 1st Ave S, St. Pete at 6:30pm on Tuesday January 30th, followed by a live
in-person ‘fireside chat’ featuring the film’s star, daughter of Louis Armstrong: Sharon
Preston-Folta.

Presented jointly by the Green Book of Tampa Bay and the
Woodson African American Museum, the screening is
sponsored by the Pinellas County Urban League and its
affinity groups: PCUL Guild, Young Professionals &
NULITES. The event marks a homecoming showing for Little
Satchmo, a Florida production whose late producer Lea
Umberger called Tampa Bay home for years, having lived in
Clearwater FL where she worked as Arts Project Manager
for Creative Pinellas before passing to ovarian cancer in
April 2023, just prior to the film’s Emmy nomination and win.
Main subject Preston-Folta currently resides part-time in the
Tampa Bay area, where she has recently retired as a Senior Account Executive with
WUSF Public Media.
Sharon Preston-Folta comes forward in Little Satchmo after living closely in the shadows
of her father, unveiling a family and their relationship that was kept entirely invisible for
more than 50 years. The story is told almost exclusively from the first-person perspective
of a daughter who was loved and cared for her by her father until the end of his life. The
acclaimed documentary is based on Preston-Folta’s memoir of the same title, detailing
how Sharon, the product of a two-decade love affair between Satchmo and Harlem
dancer Lucille ‘Sweets’ Preston, had no option but to harbor and conceal her identity for
decades before making it public. Resonating with complex themes of race,

father/daughterhood, family, identity, and single-parent households, the St. Pete post-
screening conversation will focus on topics of finding one’s voice, family secrets, and

relationships with fathers; Saucin Wings food truck will be available for food purchases.
The Emmy winning film was a sponsored project of the Southern Documentary Fund
which made its TV broadcast debut as the Season Premiere of IDA Award nominated
PBS Reel South Season 7, and continues to run nationally and internationally on
television, as well as in art house theaters, at film festivals, and in educational and
institutional screenings worldwide. It has picked up top prizes in France, Switzerland,
Italy, Spain, Japan, and the USA. PBS International handles the film’s global release.
JC Guest produced Little Satchmo with Lea Umberger, which was directed by John
Alexander, and executive produced by Sharon Preston-Folta, Emily Bonavia and Susan
Houston. The film features narration by John Boutté and original music with Wycliffe
Gordon from Emmy/Grammy winner and nominee, composer Eddie Korvin.

For tickets please visit thestudioat620.org, and for more information, visit: littlesatchmodoc.com