Mississippi Creates: Kira Cummings by Amanzi Arnett Dowdy
This short documentary spotlights the Jackson, Mississippi-based artist Kira Cummings. The film explores the idea that powerful art emerges through vulnerability. Beneath a performance of what is palatable, profitable, and most acceptable, deeper expressions persist, breaking through even the most opaque facades.
Through the exploration of Kira’s signature wood-burned portraiture and her intimate abstract art, the film reveals the dualities that shape her practice and identity. We witness her joy in depicting Mississippi icons and her deeply personal, cathartic process of using art to navigate grief. The film also reveals her relationship with both celebrating Mississippi art and her own difficulties with feeling a sense of belonging in the local arts community.
Drawing from the duality within Kira’s work, the film situates her story within the layered landscape of Jackson itself. Polished downtown architecture stands alongside dilapidated yet storied buildings and public art, reflecting the Mississippi capital city’s beauty, tension, and resilience. My goal was to show the complexities of Kira Cummings and her beloved Mississippi, highlighting the beauty of what’s underneath the surface, where vulnerability becomes a source of creation and meaning.
Amanzi Arnett Dowdy is a multidisciplinary artist based in Memphis, TN. Their work focuses on place-based Black cultural memory and the preservation of Black and queer community spaces in the South. Amanzi was awarded the Indie Memphis Screenwriting Fellowship, during which they completed a feature-length film screenplay I’ll Fly Away.
A trained composer, they presented Songs of Cabin and Field, a concert of their compositions at the historic LeMoyne-Owen College featuring the Memphis area PRIZM Ensemble. Amanzi also wrote and scored their first short film Shine On: The Story of Tom Lee, which premiered on PBS in May 2025. Amanzi is currently a first-year MA student at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
Mississippi Creates: Joe Wren Janelle Minor
“This project is a documentary profile of Joe Wren, a folk artist based in Tillatoba, Mississippi, that is framed as a conversation. Filmed inside of his studio in Tillatoba, and at the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, the work moves between intimate and public spaces to explore how Wren’s art lives in dialogue with the state of Mississippi.
Wren describes his process of creating pairings on luan boards and hand-carved wood, transforming everyday materials into layered visual narratives. His work is deeply rooted in history and place, particularly the legacy of Black farmers in Tallahatchie County, whose labor and memory continue to shape both the land and his artistic practice. Through his storytelling and various works of art, their histories are able to live on today.
As a filmmaker, I approached this project as a conversation. Stories from Black Mississippians have historically been extractive and focused on their pain and suffering. The structure allows Wren to tell his own story as both an artist, and historian. By situating his voice within the spaces he inhabits, his profile reinforces the relationship between creative, place, and personal history. This work is part of my broader commitment to documenting Southern life in a way that is complex and filled with color.”
Janelle Minor is first year, Southern Studies MA student (documentary track) at the University of Mississippi, where she also earned her undergraduate degree. An Oxford native, she explores the relationship between public narratives and lived experience, with a focus on the Mississippi Delta.
Her work examines race, memory, and representation through documentary storytelling. Utilizing oral history, photography, and videography she is committed to centering the voices of Black Mississippians and centering the joy and pride that is present in this heavily contested space. She aims to document each life with care, depth, and paying attention to the voices that shape it.
The Art of Play: Chef Erika of Sola by Deja Samuel
This short documentary explores the work and philosophy of Chef Erika of Sola. The film follows her inspiration, creative process, and personal journey into becoming a chef, framing cooking not just as a skill, but as an evolving artistic expression.
At the center of the documentary is the idea of playing like a child and editing like a scientist. Chef Erika’s approach to food reflects a willingness to experiment, take risks, and remain curious. Through her story, the film examines what happens when creativity is followed rather than restricted. Her dishes become a reflection of imagination in motion; constantly changing, surprising, and inviting people to experience something new.
The documentary suggests that artistry is not limited to traditional mediums. In the kitchen, Chef Erika transforms ingredients into experiences that bring people together and spark curiosity. Her work demonstrates how dedication and playfulness can coexist, leading to innovation and connection.
Ultimately, this film is about the value of continuing to explore and create without fear. It invites viewers to consider how staying open to play can lead to meaningful and unexpected outcomes, both in art and in life.
Deja Samuel is a photographer and first-year southern Studies graduate student from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her work sits at the intersection of documentary practice, everyday ritual, and the search for the sacred within the mundane. Before entering graduate school, she developed a body of work that grew far beyond the classroom, photographing weddings, family histories, and intimate moments that often unfold in the quiet spaces between major milestones. She is drawn to small gestures: the held breath during a vow, the stillness between contractions, the way light transforms an ordinary room into something reverent.
Samuel is interested in visual narratives that marry the sacred and the mundane, exploring how faith, identity, and community shape the Southern experience. Her current research and creative work examine spiritual life within queer communities, using photography as a way to honor presence, truth, and the complexity of belonging. Looking ahead, she hopes to expand her documentary practice across regions and cultures, contributing to global storytelling platforms while remaining rooted in the people and places that first shaped her vision.
Mississippi Creates: What We Carry by Mariel Sprock and Cody Stickels
“Our intention in making this documentary about the Mississippi based painter Brejenn Allen is to show how art can be a way to care for yourself while also caring for your community. Our central idea is that you can change the world through art when you take care of yourself first, and we wanted to explore how that looks in a real person’s life. Through following Brejenn’s routines, driving through Mississippi, working with kids, planning her projects, and creating her artwork, we aim to show how her creativity is shaped by the world around her and her interaction with it.
Taking a cue from Brejenn’s own artistic statement, in which she writes about “highlighting the elegance of everyday items,” we wanted to mirror that idea in our visual approach. By moving between verité scenes of her life as an artist and details of her art, we hope to connect her distinctive artistic style to her larger story and connection to Mississippi. Ultimately, our goal is to create a film that reflects the grace, talent, and care that Brejenn brings to her life and to her art, while showing that art is not just about making images; it’s spiritual, a form of healing, change, documentation, and storytelling.”
Mariel Sprock is a master’s student majoring in American Studies. Currently enrolled at a university in Germany, she spent an academic year at the University of Mississippi as part of her graduate studies. With a strong interest in U.S. history and contemporary American society, she joined the course Documenting the South in Film to deepen her understanding of Southern culture while gaining hands-on experience in documentary filmmaking. The work created reflects a curiosity about regional identity, storytelling, and everyday life in the American South.
Cody Stickels is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer focused on emotionally driven stories that unite audiences. He’s a Chicken & Egg (Egg)celerator Lab fellow with A Texas Son and participated in the Film Independent Documentary Story Lab. Most recently, Cody was selected for the Voices With Impact Mental Health Short Film Grant for 5 Years in 8mm. Cody holds a BFA in Film & TV from New York University and currently serves as a Teaching Assistant while pursuing his MFA in Documentary Expression at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture.