I'm in Clarksdale, Mississippi for the very first Clarksdale Film Festival, which starts today and runs through Sunday. Presented by the Clarksdale Downtown Development Association (which also hosts the Juke Joint Festival every April), it will focus on films that highlight the music, culture, and people of the Delta.
There are several music and blues documentaries on the schedule, as well as features like Prom Night in Mississippi, Paul Saltzman's 2008 documentary about the first integrated Charleston, MS high school prom (funded by Charleston resident Morgan Freeman), and Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, filmed by three Mississippi teenagers over a seven-year period in the 1980s. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing Standing the Test of Time: Bobby Rush (with Mr. Rush in attendance), and Robert Mugge's Scissormen doc Big Shoes: Walking and Talking the Blues (the Scissormen will also perform at Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art on Saturday afternoon). My friends Joe York and Scott Barretta's documentary short Smokes & Ears, about Jackson, MS's Big Apple Inn and its famous pig-ear sandwiches, will also screen Saturday afternoon.
Check out the entire schedule by clicking on the banner below. If you're in the area, hope to see you there! (And while I'm in town, maybe I can get an update on the fate of WROX . . .)
Further reading:
Inaugural Clarksdale Film Festival starts today (Scott Barretta/Clarion-Ledger)
Clarksdale Film Festival (Delta Bohemian)
Clarksdale Film Festival: Debut features works from all walks of life (Matt Killebrew/Clarksdale Press Register)
Hollywood Comes to Mississippi This Weekend for the Inaugural Clarksdale Film Festival (David W. King/Blues In The Digital Age)
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