Event

100 Years from Mississippi

100 Years from Mississippi
Directed by Tarabu Betserai Kirkland
Year of Production: 2020
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Register to receive login information and watch the film at home any time between February 18th and 20th, 2022.

About the film:

100 Years From Mississippi is a true story of resilience, forgiveness, memory, and hope.

Mamie Lang Kirkland was seven years old when she fled Ellisville, Mississippi in 1915 with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. John Hartfield returned to Mississippi in 1919 and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era.

Mamies son, Tarabu, had grown up hearing stories of John Hartfield but didnt know if his mothers stories were fact or folklore until one day in 2015. Tarabu discovered an article describing Hartfields murder before a crowd of 10,000 spectators. At that moment, the film was born.

Mamie had vowed for a century that she would never return to Mississippi. Yet with Tarabus remarkable find, he urged his mother to finally confront her childhood trauma by returning to Ellisville. Mamie was 107 when they began the journey to connect her story to the larger impact of Americas legacy of racial violence, which echoes today from Ferguson to New York, Atlanta to Los Angeles. Like many of the six million African Americans who left the Deep South, Mamies story is a testament to the courage and hope of her generation. Her indomitable will and contagious joy of living are exceeded only by her ability to tell her story now 111 years later. In a time of great social divisions, 100 Years From Mississippi gives us the simple wisdom of an ordinary womans extraordinary life.

Winner of the Best Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival 2021 and Best Documentary Feature at the National Black Film Festival 2021

Location

at home

Timezone: America/New_York

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