This short film takes a look back at the weeks leading up to the historic presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain at the University of Mississippi in September of 2008. Produced by Media and Documentary Project Center graduate production assistant Rebecca Batey and Joe York
Oxford Film Festival — Prom Night in Mississippi
Prom Night Director Paul Saltzman speaks to the overflow crowd at the Overby Center.
address the crowd at the Overby Center.
Makin' Do
Produced by the Department of History and the Media and Documentary Projects Center at the University of Mississippi. This Oral History based film was produced by history graduate students and documents the experiences of women in Northeast Mississippi who “Made Do” over the course of the 20th Century.
"Saving Willie Mae's Scotch House" Earns Nationwide Television Distribution
The University of Mississippi’s Media and Documentary Projects Center is proud to announce that it’s feature-length documentary film “Saving Willie Mae’s Scotch House” has earned nationwide television distribution.
Produced, directed, and edited by Joe York, the film chronicles the 18-month effort to rebuild Willie Mae Seaton’s famed Scotch House Restaurant, a New Orleans culinary landmark destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Among those featured in the film are John T Edge and Mary Beth Lasseter of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) — an affiliate of the University of Mississippi housed at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture –and Chef John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi.
Thanks to the National Educational Television Association (NETA) the film has been made available to over 100 public television stations in over 40 states. To date, the film has aired in California, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Louisiana. With each station allowed to air the film 4 times over 3 years, that list is sure to grow in the coming months.
Click here to watch the film in its entirety.
Media and Documentary Projects Project Sampler
A brief collection of work from Media and Documentary Projects Center at the University of Mississippi. Highlights include documentary work, educational films, commercials, film restoration samples, as well as scenes from upcoming productions.
Feeding The Soul at Jones Valley Urban Farm
In the heart of downtown Birmingham, Alabama lives a small three acre block where big things are happening. Feeding the Soul takes a brief look at the Jones Valley Urban Farm and highlights some of the incredible ways that this small farm is not only giving back to the city of Birmingham but is setting an example for the entire world to follow. Filmed over the course of the 2008 summer harvest, we witness the hardships and triumphs of a farm that’s anything but ordinary.
The Rise of Southern Cheese
The Rise of Southern Cheese from The UM Media and Documentary Project Center.
Artisanal cheeses have been enjoyed and celebrated all over the world. The rich tradition and lore of the cheesemaker has found its way to places where artisanal cheese is not the first thing that comes to mind: the american south. The Rise of Southern Cheese celebrates the people whose passion for artisanal cheese is changing the way people think about traditional southern foods. With stops in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, this film provides a snapshot of the cheese that’s making its way to tables across America.
Eat or We Both Starve
(2008)
Buttermilk: It Can Help
Can buttermilk solve the world’s problems? According to Earl Cruze, a dairy farmer and buttermilk maker from Knoxville, Tennessee, “it can help.” (2008)
Saving Willie Mae's Scotch House
Before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans people came from all around to eat at Willie Mae Seaton’s famed Scotch House Restaurant. After the storm, they came back to help rebuild the ruined culinary landmark. This documentary traces their efforts seeing the tiny restaurant as an analog for the tremendous difficulties and small victories that play out everyday in post-Katrina New Orleans. (2007)
"Sorry We're Open"
A video flashback to the Hoka Theater, the iconic Oxford, Mississippi, cotton warehouse turned movie theater.
Working the Miles
Apalachicola Bay on Florida’s so-called Forgotten Coast is world-renowned for its enormous Gulf oysters. This short documentary follows Johnny and Janice Richards, and oysterman and his wife, a shucker, through one day working the area of the Apalachicola Bay known as “The Miles”. (2006)
Hot Chicken
Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, Tennessee, is half-heaven, half-hell. The chicken that comes out of the kitchen is hotter than fried magma, but for the masochists who eat it day in and day out, going to Prince’s is more than a dare, it’s a way of life.
Mutton: The Movie
“Mutton: The Movie” takes you on a magical journey to the northwestern corner of Kentucky (Owensboro to be exact) where the descendants of the Welsh who settled the banks of the Ohio River don’t count sheep, they barbecue them.
Whole Hog
Whole hog is a paean to the barbecue pitmasters, hog farmers, and butchers of rural western Tennessee, who everyday transform the lowly hog into the edible embodiment of two of the greatest human virtues, patience and hard work. (2006)
Marsaw
Martin Sawyer tended bar in the French Quarter for over 50 years. As a child he witnessed the flood of 1927 and as an octagenarian he fled his native New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina took aim. In this short profile, Mr. Sawyer talks about his time behind the bar and his memories of the Cresenct City. (2006)