The Documentary Projects Center

In creating innovative and original documentary projects the Center not only provides content for OMTV and other media outlets, but more significantly provides a training opportunity that doesn't exist at any of the other institutions in Mississippi. Areas of emphasis include:

• Oral history projects
• Documentary radio
• Documentary film
• Internship and assistantship opportunities
• Outreach opportunities

 

ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS

• Freedom Riders: And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
The Civil Rights Movement is an important example of local people becoming empowered to create positive change. 'Freedom Riders' encourages understanding of this period in order to be more truthful about the past as we move forward toward building an equitable future together. Produced by the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and The Documentary Center, both at The University of Mississippi, and the non-profit PieceWorks: a Deep South Arts Collective, the film serves as a secondary educational resource and is available to high schools for no fee.

• North Mississippi Women: Making Do
Dr. Elizabeth Payne, UM Professor of History, and five of her doctoral students attracted national attention with their groundbreaking research project chronicling the oral histories of older women in North Mississippi. The focus of 'Making Do' is the women who came of age during the World War II era. The subjects recount their experiences with the sharecropping system and race relations, as well as share how the Great Depression and industrialization affected their lives. They come from all economic backgrounds and are both black and white. The documentary is a valuable oral history in which Southerners born before WWII record for others the joys and hardships of a vanished way of life. 'Making Do' includes over 75 interviews, photos, brief biographies, and video excerpts. The film was the winner of the MS Department of Archives and History's Elbert R. Hilliard Oral History Award in 2007. It is the third year in a row a project produced at the University of Mississippi has won the award.

 

SFA FILMS

SFA films tell the stories of the men and women who grow, create, serve, and consume the food and drink of the American South. Films are produced in concert with the University of Mississippi’s Documentary Center. For links visit the SFA site.

• Rolling Tamales on MLK by Joe York and Micah Ginn
A portrait of Elizabeth Scott, a tamale maker in Greenville, Mississippi. Scott and her husband learned to make tamales after developing a taste for them in Texas, and today six of her nine children–as well as some grandchildren–are carrying on the tradition at their Martin Luther King Boulevard tamale stand.

• Saving Seeds by Joe York and Matt Bruder
A portrait of Bill Best, an heirloom bean and tomato farmer of Berea, Kentucky

• On Flavor by Joe York
A portrait of Ed Scott, the first African American Catfish farmer in the Mississippi Delta

• Welcome Table by Joe York
A portrait of Martha Hawkins of Montgomery, Alabama, whose restaurant serves as a modern day incarnation of the Civil Rights Movement ideal of the beloved community

• Marsaw by Joe York
A portrait of Martin Sawyer, bartender at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel in New Orleans. Mr. Sawyer, a veteran of more than six decades of tending bar, witnessed the flood of 1927 and survived Hurricane Katrina.

• Working the Miles by Joe York
A tribute to the men and women of 13 Mile Oyster Company, honoring Tommy Ward who, like his father before him, has served as a guardian of the Apalachicola Bay.

• Something Better Than Barbecue by Joe York
A look at Chuck Ferrell of Chuck's Bar-B-Q in Opelika, Alabama. Ferrell is a born-again Christian who uses his heavenly barbecue as a tool for conversion. He keeps a stock of personalized religious tracts by the register came to wield a pitchfork for a living.

• Dial S for Sausage by Joe York
A portrait of the Bracewells and their family business, Southside Market and BBQ, a butcher shop turned restaurant in Elgin, Texas

• BBGBBQ by Joe York
A history of Big Bob Gibson's BBQ in Decatur, Alabama, complimented by a glimpse of the barbecue culture of north Alabama

• The Rise of Southern Cheese by Joe York and Matthew Graves
A look at artisinal cheese producers in the South, The Rise of Southern Cheese chronicles three makers of fine Southern cheeses: Belle Chevre in Alabama, Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia, and Bonnie Blue Farm in Tennessee.

• Fried Pies by Joe York
A portrait of entrepreneur, E.W. Mayo, the proprietor of Mayo's Mahalia Jackson Fried Chicken and Fried Pies

• Hot Chicken by Joe York
An examination of a peculiar Nashville culinary phenomenon, hot chicken and a tribute to Andre Prince Jeffries, the woman whose recipe and restaurant are without parallel