Tupelo Digs the Embalming
Last Friday night, The Embalming was screened at the 2nd annual Tupelo Halloween Film Festival where it was awarded Best Film, Cinematography, and Actor (Rhes Low). Frank Tuttle also won Runner-up for Best Screenplay. It’s a great event and it’s always so much fun to have your film shown to an audience. We’re starting production […]
The Embalming’s a Winner
Last weekend, my halloween short film from 2013 The Embalming was played at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival where it took home the award for best Horror Short. For a full list of winners click here. The film was written by fellow Ole Miss staff (and Karen’s hubby) Frank Tuttle who is also an award […]
Winter is Coming
We had a wonderful screening of the Toughest Job: William Winter’s Mississippi in Jackson last Thursday night to kickoff the broadcast premiere on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Kudos to MPB for creating beautiful banners to match the poster graphics for the film. There’s an additional broadcast tonight on MPB at 8pm and a free screening in […]
Dobrý den!
Greetings from Prague, Czech Republic. We’re currently in production on a new project, documenting the Ole Miss Opera and their performance of Hamlet in the Czech Republic in the Spring. I’ve gotten the opportunity to accompany University professor Julia Aubrey who is directing the opera to Prague as she visits several opera houses to select […]
Longleaf: The Heart of Pine Teaser Trailer
Sneak a birds-eye preview of Rex’s latest film. Coming Soon.
Welcome Janisse Ray
Media and Documentary Projects and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture were pleased to have been able to help sponsor Janisse Ray’s Earth Day Lecture as the last event in the Environmental Studies Spring Film and Lecture Series. And we are happy to post the audio from that lecture here. Enjoy Janisse Ray […]
Texas Tea
Greetings from Seminole, Texas! Today was my third day of shooting for the documentary about Texas High School One Act Play competitions. It’s been a wonderful experience so far to meet these incredibly talented and passionate students involved in Seminole’s One-Act and see the tremendous amount of preparation that goes into competing at the unique […]
Greetings from the Lone Star State
16 hours west of Oxford is the small town of Seminole, TX. Home to farmers, oil rig workers, teachers, and preachers. I’ll be here all week documenting the high school theatre department as the students prepare for the district One-Act play competition. This state-wide event is one of the largest theatrical competitions in the world […]
Cartha "Deke" DeLoach 1920-2013
Cartha DeLoach, the former deputy director of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover passed away yesterday in his home in South Carolina at the age of 92. I had the privilege of interviewing him last year for our documentary on the integration of Ole Miss. He was incredibly kind and warm to us that day […]
Pepperdine LEADS
This past week, students from Pepperdine University spent their Spring Break visiting universities in the South as part of their leadership class talking to students, faculty, and staff about social action and justice. I had the privilege of meeting with the group for about an hour talking about my latest documentary Rebels: James Meredith & […]
TSUN of a Gun!
We were at the Tad Pad last night filming footage for an upcoming music video of the Ole Miss student duo King Kobraz. Their earlier song about Ole Miss Football standout Donte Moncrief coined the popular chant: Feed Moncrief! This time around, the King Kobras set their sights on Ole Miss basketball. The line of […]
A Conversation with Cartha DeLoach
Back in June, I travelled down to the home of retired F.B.I. deputy director Cartha “Deke” DeLoach to interview him for our documentary film Rebels: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. While we were there, Center for Intelligence and Security Studies Director and retired F.B.I. agent Carl Jensen sat down with Mr. DeLoach […]
Power to the Students
Last evening, I spent some time at the Powerhouse Theatre giving a filmmaking workshop to an energetic group of middle school acting students. We talked about some of the types of shots you do when making a movie and how lighting can improve the quality and feel of your image. Here’s a test we did […]
More Lessons
Today was the final day of filming at Oxford Elementary as we interviewed over 40 third graders about the film they watched yesterday and what they would ask Bonnie Consolo, the woman born with no arms, if they met her. It was tight quarters but I wanted to use our new silk scrim to diffuse […]
Lessons Learned From Third Graders
We were filming today at Oxford Middle School for the first of two days of taping. As a small part of an extensive look at the history of special education in America, two classes of Oxford Middle School third graders were shown the award winning 1975 film A Day in the Life of Bonnie Consolo. […]
Joe on the Mississippi Arts Hour
MDP Senior Producer Joe York was recently interviewed on MPB for the Mississippi Arts Hour by our old friend and former student Mary Margaret Miller White. Thanks to Mary Margaret and all our friends at the Mississippi Arts Commission. Click on the link below to hear the interview. Listen to Joe on Mississippi Arts Hour.
All Quiet on the Rebels Front
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog so I thought I’d share a little of what became of our documentary feature Rebels: James Meredith & the Integration of Ole Miss. After a truly olympian marathon editing process, the film premiered to a packed house at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing […]
Trick or Treat
Hot off the presses and just in time for Halloween, please enjoy my new short film “Trick or Treat” starring Greg Earnest, Meaghin Burke, Micah Ginn, and the amazing Maddie Cavett! A huge thanks to the cast and crew including Laura Cavett, Matt Minshew, and Greg Gray for donating their time and talents for this […]
Cameras and Candy
Last weekend, we shot this year’s addition to the annual OMTV Halloween short film series. This year’s film is called “Trick or Treat” and tells the continuing story of Todd and Margo. On their way to a Halloween party, they meet a mysterious girl. We shot the film at the Center for the Study of […]
Enter James Meredith
James Meredith, the first African American enrolled at the University of Mississippi was in Oxford yesterday signing copies of his new memoir, A Mission from God. We documented his visit for our upcoming documentary and snagged a couple of books while we were at it!
A Scanner Lightly
Student worker Matt Minshew spent the morning at Special Collections in the library taking images from a newly donated collection of newspaper articles from 1962 regarding the integration of Ole Miss. These articles will provide a great framework for the timeline of events we’ll chronicle in the upcoming documentary, Rebels. Check back soon for more […]
Coming Soon
Although we’re still in production, I wanted to share the title of Media and Documentary Projects new documentary, REBELS: James Meredith & The Integration of Ole Miss. Directed by Matthew Graves. The hour long film tells the story of the events leading up to James Meredith’s historic integration of the University of Mississippi and the […]
A Legal Mind
Today I drove to Forest, MS to interview 1970 University of Mississippi Law School graduate Constance Slaughter Harvey. Constance was the first female African-American law student at Ole Miss and shared with me her experiences as a student and the passion she has to make real change in Mississippi which was the driving force behind […]
Cartha "Deke" DeLoach
We continue to gather stories from people involved in the 1962 integration of the University. This week, I traveled to Hilton Head, South Carolina to speak with retired FBI Assistant to the Director Cartha “Deke” DeLoach. He was the No. 3 man for the FBI during his career in the mid 40s through early 70s. […]
Let there be light box!
We’re currently producing a feature length documentary on the integration of Ole Miss for the 50th year anniversary this September. We received some snippets from 8mm footage that was shot on campus and was able to magnify and digitize the image using our lightbox. It feels like discovering some piece of hidden history looking at […]
exit
Here is our new short film “exit”. A science fiction film about a man who recieves a mysterious package on his doorstep. The title is all lower case because that makes it cool! Special thanks to Eric Feldman, Johnny Mcphail, Matt Minshew, Melissa Graves and everyone here at Media and Documentary Projects for all their […]
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Next week, we’ll premiere a new short film “Exit” directed by Matthew Graves. It’s a short science fiction film about a man who receives a mysterious package on his door step. Check back next Friday for the finished film.
