Documentary filmmaker Laura Seltzer-Duny gave a preview of her latest film project, “The Gate,” during a gathering held by the Fairfield Foundation at the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester on Monday, Jan. 19, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The film is about contraband families—once-enslaved Africans who sought refuge behind Union lines in Hampton during the Civil War. One of those who found his way to freedom was Robert Langley Brooks of Mathews, and the film, still in production, will explore his life, from the journey he undertook to gain his freedom as a lone 15-year-old, to the emergence of a thriving contraband community in Hampton, to his career as a successful farmer and oysterman in Isle of Wight. Featured in the film are two of his descendants, Pam Holley of Cape Charles, and Tim Savage of Hampton, along with their cousin, Sara Lewis of Gloucester, who is a descendant of the family that enslaved Brooks. The film follows the three of them as they trace their shared ancest...