This short documentary features the Skylight Inn in Ayden, North Carolina, where the Jones family carries their family tradition of cooking whole hog barbecue into its third century. Produced by Joe York of the Media & Documentary Projects Center for the Southern Foodways Alliance and the Big Apple BBQ Block Party. The documentary debuted at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party in New York in June.
As Seen On TV
In case you didn’t see it, here’s a (bad) picture from tonight’s broadcast of our own Joe York’s “Saving Willie Mae’s Scotch House” on Mississippi’s Public Broadcasting Station (PBS). The showing was a great success and nice venue to show off all of Joe’s hard work. To watch the film in it’s entirety, click here or check you local listings for future broadcasts. Congratulations Joe.
Mississippi Premier of Willie Mae's and great news for John Currence and John T. Edge
May brings the great news that Saving Willie Mae’s Scotch House will make it’s Mississippi debut
and that two of the film’s stars, Oxford’s own John Currence and John T. Edge have joined Willie Mae Seaton as James Beard Foundation Award winners. Currence received a Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: South and our partner John T. was named to the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. We are happy to see Joe York’s documentary, which has already aired on public television in several states, be the featured program on MPB for the month of May. Congratulations to Joe, John T., and to John Currence. Saving Willie Mae’s Scotch House will air statewide on MPB May 28 at 9 pm. Until then, enjoy the trailer!
Going Whole Hog in North Carolina
This past week MDP producer Joe York traveled to eastern North Carolina where he shot a short documentary about the Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC. Pictured to the left, the Skylight Inn was named the “BBQ Capitol of the World” in 1979 by National Geographic Magazine. The Jones family, who have been cooking eastern North Carolina-style barbecue since before there was an eastern North Carolina-style barbecue (they’ve been at it since 1830), took the title of BBQ Capitol seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they had a replica of the US Capitol’s dome erected atop their otherwise bare bones barbecue joint.
York’s forthcoming documentary covers this interesting eccentricity of the Skylight Inn and many, many more. The film will debut at the 2009 Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in New York City on June 13th and marks the fourth such film made for the event. Others have chronicled mutton barbecue in Kentucky, evangelical barbecue in Alabama, and so-called barbecued Hot Guts in east Texas.
Check back next month for the finished film.
Pulling Ourselves Up by Our Gillstraps?
MPD Producer Joe York and Graduate Assistant Ben Gillstrap tackled the Oxford Conference for the Book last weekend. Together with MPD Graduate Assistant Ferriday Mansel, these intrepid videographers recorded the entire proceedings of the conference from the opening salvo at the Departments of Archives & Special Collections to the closing panel at the Nutt Auditorium. If you’re one of the lucky VistaIIIMedia customers with access to Channel 99, keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for video from the Conference. If you’re not so lucky, we suggest you keep an eye on OMTVlive.com.
Our thanks to all the staff, volunteers, and Physical Plant personnel who helped us successfully capture this wonderful slate of panels and readings.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
This past Saturday, MPD producer Joe York had the good fortune to interview Radley Balko (above) of Reason.com, for MPD’s forthcoming documentary on the Mississippi Innocence Project.
Balko’s journalism has offered valuable insight into the Brooks & Brewer cases which the documentary seeks to chronicle. His interview will be a major piece of the film and its completion marks a major success for this ongoing project.
Thanks to Mr. Balko as well as Rob McDuff and Sybil Byrd who provided their law office in Jackson as the site of the interview.
Ello, Guvnah!
If MPD producers Joe York and Micah Ginn were British chimney sweeps, they might very well have uttered the phrase “Ello, Guvnah!” this past Friday when they traveled to Jackson to interview Governor Haley Barbour for MPD’s upcoming Debate 08 Documentary.
Good thing for MPD and everyone involved their mommas taught them better than that.
Seriously, we really did interview Governor Barbour and our sincere thanks go out to him and his staff for facilitating what will certainly be a key interview in the upcoming documentary.
Sounds of the South
Work continues in the Kinard Audio Studios on the pilot series for a new radio program called “S
ounds of the South”. All semester, MPD intern Nelson Griffin has worked with producer Joe York to create ten 3-4 minutes radio spots based on entries from the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Music Edition.
Aside from providing production experience and internship credit for Nelson, the spots he’s creating will be the basis of what we hope will be MPD & UM;s widening presence on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
Check back later in the semester for examples of Nelson’s completed radio spots on such varied southern musical icons as Jelly Roll Morton, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Southern Culture on the Skids, and many, many more.
Rise and Shine
You have to get up pretty early to get the best of Southern Studies Students Matt Hopper and Jen Lawrence. Above is a rough cut of their short documentary about erstwhile Oxford politico Shine Morgan. Matt & Jen are producing the documentary for Dr. Justin Nystrom’s SST 402 class. MPD producer Joe York has worked with Dr. Nystrom and his students all semester helping them produce short documentaries for MPD’s ongoing Oxonians Oral History Project.
Another Piece of the Puzzle
Today, producers Joe York and Matthew Graves traveled to Columbus to interview District Attorney Forrest Allgood for Joe’s upcoming documentary on the Mississippi Innocence Project. Pictured is Allgood going over some court documents with York. Check back for more information and updates on this ongoing project.
And They're Off…
This semester Joe York and Andy Harper are helping teach SST 554, Documentary Fieldwork, with Dr. David Wharton. The class has been divided into five groups and each group will produce a ten minute short documentary focusing on the intersection between local food and culture. In this short video student George Ray discusses the project he and students Ben Guest and Katrina Hayes will be producing.
Outstanding in his Field…Recordings
Dr. David Evans, professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Memphis, delivered the keynote address at the recent Blues Today Symposium here at the University of Mississippi. Highway 61 Radio producers Joe York and Eric Feldman were there to record the proceedings. Check back for more from the Blues Symposium later this week and be sure to visit highway61radio.com
5…4…3…2…1….Thacker Mountain Radio Documentary Picks Up Steam
This evening Media & Documentary Projects Center graduate assistant Mary Warner is down in the delta filming interviews for her documentary film about Thacker Mountain Radio. Over the past three months, Mary has worked with producer Joe York to shoot over a dozen interviews for the film, which will serve as partial fulfillment of her thesis requirement for a MA in Southern Studies.
Just last week, Mary, Joe, and MDPC’s own Matthew Graves filmed Thacker Mountain Radio in beautiful high definition video, covering the show from top to bottom with four cameras filming simultaneously.
Check back later this semester to see the final cut.
Students take a "shine" to documentary work
This semester students in Dr. Justin Nystrom’s Southern Studies 402 class are doing short documentary projects in support of the Media & Documentary Projects Center’s “Oxonians Oral History Initiative”. Jen Lawrence & Matt Hopper, pictured here, are both in the class and are working together 0n a short documentary about the late Oxonian appliance store owner and politico extraordinaire, Shine Morgan. Just today Jen and Matt were in Studio B interviewing Linda Morgan for their project.
But Jen and Matt are just two of many students in the class and their project is just one of several in production. Check back throughout the semester for more from these up and coming oral historians.
Knock! Knock! Who's there? Wisconsin Public Radio!
If it seems like only last week that local author Jack Pendarvis paid a visit to the Media & Documentary Projects Center, it’s becasue it was! We used our trusty Zephyr ISDN line to connect Jack with the good people at Wisocnsin Public Broadcasting who produce the nationally syndicated radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge. Jack will be featured on an upcoming episode of the show reading his article “The 50 Greatest Things That Just Popped Into My Head” which was originally published in The Believer.
Mutton but a Thing
The UM Media & Documentary Projects Center is proud to announce that Joe York’s short film “Mutton: The Movie” will headline the opening night gala at the 2009 New York Food Film Festival.
If you can’t make it to the Big Apple for the big night (June 13) you can see “Mutton: The Movie” right here, right now….
RIP – Bluesman Willie King
Highway 61 Radio was sad to learn this morning that Mississippi bluesman Willie King passed away this past weekend. Over the years Willie has been a great friend of the show and we have featured him on the program many times. He will be greatly missed.
A few years back Highway 61 producer Joe York and Preston Lauterbach produced a short film about Willie called “The Real Baptizing”. We hope it brings back good memories for you as it does for us and we ask that you keep Willie, his family, and friends in your thoughts and prayers.
For more information visit highway61radio.com
The Real Baptizing from Highway61 on Vimeo.
Documenting the Blues
Highway 61 Radio producers Joe York and Eric Feldman kept busy last week documenting all the activity surrounding the latest Blues Today: Living Blues Symposium. Throughout the coming week we’ll be posting videos of all of the events and panels from the symposium, beginning with this video of the dedication of a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker honoring the University of Mississippi’s commitment to “Documenting the Blues”.
Howorth/Schultze
Earlier this week, Lucy Schultze of the Oxford Eagle interviewed Oxford Mayor Richard Howorth at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism & Politics. The Media & Documentary Projects Center’s newest team member, Noah Bunn, was there to record the mayor’s thoughts on his past eight years in office.
Fixing it in Post
The Documentary class is starting to heat up. The class has been divided up into five groups of three and we have begun training in interview and editing techniques. Production begins when we return from spring break. Check back for updates.
Hooray! for Drake and Terry
Remember the James Meredith documentary by two students from Madison Middle School that we blogged about last week? Well, it went over like gangbusters at the National History Day competition this past week, winning everything in sight! Here’s an email we received from Drake and Terry’s teacher Tom Watts at Madison Middle School:
Andy and Joe, Drake Terry and Jerry Lee Ainsworth won the over all “Best in Show” (for all five categories) at the State level National History Day at the University of Southern Mississippi. Also, they won the Group Documentary at Senior Division; received a special award for the best Oral History Project; and won the History Quiz Bowl for the second year in a row, beating a team from Crystal Springs, 19 – 3. I know you are as proud of them as We are. But they could not have done it without ya’lls tremendous help!!! We will be going in to the University of Maryland for the National History Day to represent Mississippi. No Mississippi project has won in any of the catagories in the 28 year history of National History Day. We are hoping to be the first. Again, God Bless ya’ll and thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!! Tom Watts, Madison Middle School, Madison, MS
If you missed the now award winning documentary by Drake and Terry when we posted it last week, here it is again:
All Eyes on Meredith
Over the past two months producer/director Joe York has worked with Jerry Ainsworth and Drake Terry from Madison Middle School on their short documentary “All Eyes on Meredith.” Jerry and Drake produced and shot the footage for the film and the Center for Documentary projects provided them with the facilities and personnel to help them edit and finish the documentary. Drake and Jerry plan to enter the film in the Nation History Day competition with the ultimate goal of advancing to Washington, D.C., where they hope to represent the state of Mississippi.
The Media and Documentary Projects Center wishes them the best of luck!
Highway 61 — Living Blues Symposium
Scott Barretta and Eric Feldman are in the studio this week producing a Highway 61 featuring folklorist George Mitchell and music from the Blues Today Conference. Highway 61 is produced here at the Media and Documentary Projects Center and airs each Saturday night at 10pm on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
Batey Debatey Film
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
General Colin Powell Press Conference
Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, answers questions from the press prior to a speaking engagement at the University of Mississippi’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Spring Convocation. Produced by Joe York
Producer Joe York films General Powell."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.
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.