Waking in Mississippi (1/7): A Documentary on Race, Media, and Politics in the Rural South

Waking in Mississippi:
A Documentary on Race, Media, and Politics in the Rural South
Color, 58 min., English. Christie Herring & Andre Robinson, c. 1997

...a project about race, media, and politics in the rural southern US which chronicles the effects of a major Hollywood production (John Grisham's US$60 million A Time to Kill) on race/community relations in Canton Mississippi, a predominantly black (70%) agrarian town near the state's delta region--a town of only 11,000; a town with a continuing history of segregation.

We ask the question, "Is Hollywood waking Mississippi from it's hateful slumber?" We seek to create a space in which the segregated racial and economic factions of Canton can find common ground, even if only on film. Various citizens, both prominent and ordinary, of Canton and Mississippi help establish a cinematic dialogue or context within which to understand the enormity of the challenges facing rural Southern communities as they attempt move beyond the nineteenth into the twenty-first century; as they attempt to negotiate the pitfalls of a post-industrial, information age society. We focus on two watershed events in the town's recent past, namely the election of Canton's first black mayor in 1994 and the filming of A Time to Kill in 1995.

About Waking in Mississippi...

"Waking In Mississippi is a courageous, beautiful portrait of race relations in Canton, Mississippi, a small town in the Deep South. In creating their first film, Christie Herring and Andre Robinson bring exceptional cinematic artistry to what will stand as a classic document on the American South."

--Dr. William Ferris, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities


"a rare journalistic accomplishment: a thoughtful, intelligent documentary about a Mississippi town"

--Rob Robertson, Oxford Town

Waking in Mississippi is a project of Gone South Productions. It received generous support from the Duke University Program in Film + Video, the Ivanhoe/Duke Documentary Project, the Edward H. Benenson Award in the Arts, and the Duke University Center for Campus and Community Development. Distribution is being handled through the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississipi.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• race
• media
• politics
• a time to kill
• grisham
• samuel l. jackson
• matthew mcconnaughey
• sandra bullock
• canton
• mississippi
• election

[nutlil2]

@JoyceJeffersonTV im from ny and ive been down south ...white people down south are racist but because of tyhe stigma the south has gotten they for the most part tone down any racist feeling cus it will just make the south look even worse...of course i could ignore it and be all friendly with them but then i would look like the way a lot of black people look and i dont want to do that, but face it racism really aint up in anyones face anymore

[nutlil2]

@powerman103 and you would think that our black people in california would unite against the enemy but most the people black in california kill are other blacks..tsk!

[JoyceJeffersonTV]

@powerman103 - Me and my family have been living in the South pretty much all of my life (I also have white & Native American blood - but more native blood though), and the only out front racism I have ever experienced was from my own people (black people). I went up north to Chicago & felt so out of place. I have met people who have moved here from other places, and they tell me, they love the hospitality (esp. opening doors for other people and saying yes/no ma'am, etc...)

[powerman103]

@JoyceJeffersonTV Well good point. Because Hollywood and the media likes to make the south look bad. I used to watch all those movies they made about the south all my life but not anymore. Because it's designed to program you as a black person to hate the south it's all one big distraction. Look out in california were racism is so rampant against blacks from whites and especially hispanics were they have hispanic gangs killing blacks. And cops racially profiling black. I hate california.

[JoyceJeffersonTV]

@powerman103 - am black and I would have to agree with you on this. There are so many untold stories of race relations in the south. I am not saying that it didn't exist, but why don't we ever hear about those who helped blacks escape north during slavery? There are TONS of info out there talking about race, interracial relationships, social classes, etc... where people putting their differences aside & coming together. 

[bandwagon22]

The truth is that country side all over the world has always been much more narrow-minded than bigger cities. There are huge scientific studies showing that bigger the city the more innovative people are. Innovations needs open minded environment, lots of different kind of people, high frequency of knowledge and interplay. There ain't any decent reason to be proud of White Rural Narrow-Minded Racist Christian American Patriotism but lots of reasons to be ashamed of it.

[powerman103]

@HappyHooker83 Got that right. And now these past few months I have come to realize why the south is still the focus. It's because media and the liberals hate the south and they always love to stereo type the south and make it look bad. It's all one big distraction to keep your attention of racism away from the north.

[HappyHooker83]

@powerman103 It is higher AND FAR WORSE, esp. in place like Massachusetts, because it is unchecked unlike the South whereas the whole focus is the South.

[powerman103]

@khalilahinjapan Don't believe me go to the website of southern poverty law center and click hate incidents click on the ones for southern states and northern states. You will see that in the rate is around the same as the south or better yet higher. Like New Jersey, New York, and texas which is a western state. Doing the 70's in philadelphia we had a racist mayor named frank rizzo from 1972 to 1980. He used racial profiling against blacks. I can't describe to you of what that fills like.

[powerman103]

Sorry that happened but guess. In Pennsylvania were I'm from there were also incidents blacks were killed by white racists as well. In the 90's in a pittsburgh surbub some racist cops killed a black store owner. They tried to make it look like it he was being violent against them. In philadelphia a few years ago a black man was killed by a white racist but after his trial he was killed by angry blacks. So don't think that the racism in the south is worse than the north.