Delta High School Students’ Movie Chosen For JXN Film Festival
Young Filmmakers’ Workshop Part of Fannie Lou Hamer STEM Program
JACKSON, MS – JULY 21, 2024 - For the third time this year, a movie produced by the students of a free summer workshop, the Sunflower County Film Academy, has been chosen as an official selection for a locally-based film festival. The 15-minute film, Help Wanted, will be shown as part of the Best Short (Narrative) Showcase at the fourth annual JXN Film Festival on Tuesday, July 23 at 11:17 a.m. on the campus of Tougaloo College in Jackson.
The festival, founded by filmmaker Maximus Wright, will also celebrate the trailblazing TV series, Good Times which turned 50 in February and was one of the first sitcoms to feature and highlight a Black family. Good Times was created by Mike Evans, who played “Lionel” on The Jeffersons and Eric Monte, and produced by Norman Lear. In a paid special event on Sunday, July 21, entitled, “An Evening With Thelma” actress Bern Nadette Stanis, one of the principal cast members of the series will share her memories of working on the show. A panel discussion featuring filmmakers and scholars discussing the legacy and historical importance of the sitcom will follow on Monday.
Help Wanted, which was produced by high school students from the 2023 Sunflower County Film Academy in Cleveland, was previously shown at the Magnolia Film Festival in February and the Oxford Film Festival in March. The film also won the prestigious Award of Merit from the California-based Best Shorts Film Competition in two categories: “Film Short (Student)” and “Young Filmmaker – 17 and younger”, as well as an Award of Recognition for Actor Leading (Student) Merion Turner as “Elijah”.
The Sunflower County Film Academy (SCFA) is part of the K-12 educational curriculum for the award-winning film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America. That film documents the efforts of the Mississippi-sharecropper-turned-civil rights advocate and her humanitarianism in the Delta in the 1960s and 70s. A native of Sunflower County, Hamer was also a fierce proponent of education, and brought the first Head Start program to Mississippi in the mid-1960s.
A STEM program, the SCFA continues Hamer’s mission of providing educational and job opportunities for young people in the Delta. The workshop was designed to introduce more students of color to the Digital Media field and career opportunities in the entertainment industry. Students work with instructors, who are also professional filmmakers, to plan, shoot, and edit their own films using industry standard production equipment.
Help Wanted stars two students from the workshop, Merion Turner and Jonarious Lee and tells the story of a troubled teen, “Elijah” who forms an unexpected bond when he befriends a gruff old man, “Mr. Earl” in a story about friendship, growth and finding one’s place in the world. The film was written by instructor and filmmaker, Glenn Payne and directed and produced by Payne and instructor and filmmaker Ben Powell. The students were the production crew and other cast members.
Students can also attend the film festivals where they interact with audiences, network with other industry professionals and attend festival workshops. The JXN Film Festival, which kicks off Sunday, July 21, will offer the same opportunities and more.
“We want to get more of a community feel to the festival,” Wright said. “We certainly want to continue to attract and support artists, but at the end of the day we want to put their work in front of audiences. We want people to realize they can be a big part of a film festival just like any other community arts festival.”
The week-long (July 21 – July 26) celebration of independent filmmaking will feature numerous events including movie screenings, professional development workshops by industry executives, networking and community building opportunities and masterclasses in screenwriting and/or directing and acting. A masterclass in acting will be conducted by Greenwood native Dr. Tonea Stewart, best known for her role as “Aunt Etta” on the TV series, In The Heat Of The Night. SCFA student Merion Turner, who wants to pursue an acting career is enrolled in that class.