Windows of Time
Hubert Theotis Taylor & Cyrus Moussavi | USA | 87 min

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Synopsis

About

Driven by a divine vision, filmmaker Hubert Taylor spent forty years capturing hundreds of hours of footage celebrating Black life in South Georgia. Windows of Time weaves this extraordinary archive into an intimate portrait of his father, the legendary gospel singer Brother Theotis Taylor, their tight-knit community, and filmmaking as an act of love and liberation for a prodigal son.

The film is touring festivals in 2026 and 2027, and premiering on Independent Lens on PBS in the 2027/2028 season.

Listen to Brother Theotis Taylor here

MISSISSIPPI RECORDS & PICTURESOFYOU LLC Present

A film by HUBERT THEOTIS TAYLOR & CYRUS MOUSSAVI
Edited by MALIKA ZOUHALI-WORRALL Co-Edited by TROY LEWIS
Cinematography by HUBERT THEOTIS TAYLOR & KRISTIAN MELOM
Sound by DANIEL TIMMONS Color by NATACHA IKOLI DI by NICE DISSOLVE
A Co-Production of HOLD OUT LLC and ITVS with funding provided by
THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,
in association with PBS for Independent Lens

Featuring music by
BROTHER THEOTIS TAYLOR &
HUBERT THEOTIS TAYLOR

Producer BRITTANY NUGENT
Co-Producer ZAKIYA COLLIER
Consulting Producer DARCY MCKINNON
Executive Producers CARRIE LOZANO and LOIS VOSSEN

This project began in 2018, when the great artist Lonnie Holley stopped to visit Brother Theotis Taylor and Hubert Taylor on a drive through south Georgia. Cyrus was filming with Lonnie, and Brother Taylor and Lonnie’s meeting became the final scene in “I Snuck Off The Slave Ship”, a short film which premiered at Sundance.

From there, Cyrus kept in touch with the Taylor family, eventually releasing an album of Brother Taylor’s home recordings on his label, Mississippi Records.

Only then did the filmmaking process being, as Hubert started to share images from his remarkable archive.

Over the last five years, Hubert and Cyrus have worked together to digitize this archive. Producers Brittany Nugent, Zakiya Collier, and Darcy McKinnon lead fundraising and grant writing to make it possible.

Hubert always envisioned showing his footage back to the people who appear in it, “reminding them of who they were and who they’ve become.” In late 2023, with a grant from the NEA and support from the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, the University of Georgia, and Community Archiving Workshop, the production team hosted a Community Archiving Workshop in Fitzgerald. At the Grand Theatre, a formally white-only cinema built in 1936, we digitized the archives of community members, and Hubert showed his footage back for the first time.

The results appear in the film - a celebration of the Taylor family’s art and joy, and of the radical act of documenting your own history in a place intent on erasing it.

Bios

Hubert Theotis Taylor was born and raised in a musical family in Fitzgerald, Georgia, where he still lives today. He learned to play piano and organ at a young age, but he found his true calling running audio at his father’s church services. After serving in the Navy in Vietnam, Hubert returned to Fitzgerald, where he worked as a record producer, musician, cameraman, high school cheerleading coach, and martial arts educator. In 1983 he produced the independent film “Shades of Black.” This is his first feature production.

Cyrus Moussavi is an Iranian-American filmmaker and music archivist. He runs Mississippi Records, a label devoted to collaborative releases of music by overlooked artists from across the timelines. His work has been supported by Creative Capital and the NEA, and has screened at Sundance, Black Star, BAM, and the Criterion Channel. WINDOWS OF TIME is his first feature.

Brother Theotis Taylor (1928-2022) was a turpentine farmer, preacher, father of eight, and spiritual singer and pianist from Fitzgerald, Georgia. He performed at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo and shared the stage with Sam Cooke, but never sought out fame. He prefered to stay close to his land, raise his family, and work in the woods. He released a handful of self-recorded singles on the Pitch record label out of Savannah, Georgia, and, later in life, full-length LPs with Mississippi Records and Fat Possum.

Funding / Partners

Creative Capital Grantee (Cyrus Moussavi, 2022)

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program

National Endowment for the Arts

BAVC Mediamaker Fellowship

AXS Film Fund

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Community Archiving Workshop

Kodak Film Lab

Association for Cultural Equity / Alan Lomax Archive

Exhibitions / Screenings

Camden International Film Festival
September 18, 2026
In competition

New Orleans Film Festival
October 25, 2026

Press

“The Gospel of Brother Theotis Taylor”
The Guardian
Rebecca Bengal
2020

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