As co-writer and co-producer of the documentary “Descendant,” Kern Jackson has walked red carpets all over the world. Wednesday night the University of South Alabama professor got to walk one on his home campus, as USA held a special screening to recognize his work on the film.

The event, held at the university’s Laidlaw Performing Arts Center, also recognized USA’s African American Studies Program. Like many of the film festivals and other events where “Descendant” has been presented over the last year, it featured a screening and a panel discussion with Jackson and other members of the Africatown community.

“We’ve been waiting a long time to do this,” said USA President Jo Bonner before the screening. “We are extremely proud to not only recognize Dr. Jackson tonight, but really all the local families and individuals from Africatown that are part of Team Descendant. It’s going to be a big night and a fun night.”

“Descendant,” co-written and directed by Mobile native Margaret Brown, has won numerous film-festival awards and was on the short list for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, though it was not among the final nominees. Bonner said that having a faculty member so prominently involved in a high-profile film reflects well on the university.

“Clearly his visibility is on an international stage now,” Bonner said. “He’ll be going to London in the not too distant future, he’s been up at Martha’s Vineyard with the Obamas, he’s been in California and D.C. He’s been a one-man roadshow not only talking about the documentary and the story behind it, but also about the research he’s been doing here. He’s really spent the better part of his professional career doing this research on people from Mobile, people from Alabama, and their unique stories that they’ve got to tell. It is clearly going to continue to put the university in a positive spotlight.”

Jackson said the film continues to bear fruit, both for the university and for the Africatown community.

“As a result of what’s happening in Africatown we’re teaching something about west Africa for the first time in the history of the University,” Jackson said. That involves a Fulbright Scholar in residence, Dr. Dieudonné Gnammankou, a historian and assistant professor at the Université d’Abomey-Calavi in Benin. According to information released by the university, the relationship with Gnammankou goes back to 2017, but his visit has coincided neatly with the surge of interest in Africatown.

“He’s a Fulbright fellow here for the year, and when he returns to Benin, to his university, he and I are going to team-teach a class, his students online in Benin and my students online in Alabama,” said Jackson. “And then in 2024 some of our African-American Studies minors are going to Benin to take a class with him there.”

Jackson said an “impact campaign” organized by media company Participant continues to extend the film’s impact on the Africatown community. Among other aspects, he said, educational materials related to the film will be released later this spring.

“The main thing is that the film is helping to unify all the efforts in Africatown,” he said.

Wednesday night’s event was limited to a small audience, but the university plans to hold a larger “Descendant” event in the fall “to which the entire campus and greater Mobile communities will be invited.”