New Fannie Lou Hamer Film Awarded $2,500 MFA Grant
August 30, 2020 – JACKSON, MS
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, a new and original documentary honoring the late civil rights icon, has been awarded a $2,500 grant from the Mississippi Film Alliance (MFA).
For nearly two decades, the MFA has been dedicated to fostering film and television production within the state. A non-profit coalition of film industry professionals, the MFA supports that industry by facilitating grant opportunities to new and emerging filmmakers, providing valuable education and mentoring resources to create a more robust crew base, and supporting the efforts to shape local and state legislation to further build an infrastructure that will further solidify filmmaking as a vital part of the state’s creative economy.
"We are always glad to support important stories like this that need to be told," MFA President Melanie Addington said. "While all the candidates vary in storytelling style, this is one that I am most excited about seeing on the screen."
The 2020 MFA grants program saw 21 entries with four receiving awards; two are documentaries and two are narrative with Fannie Lou Hamer’s America being the only one this year to focus on civil rights.
Mississippi sharecropper-turned-civil-rights-activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, is known for her powerful speeches, soul-stirring songs, and impassioned pleas for equal rights. Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is the first film that allows Hamer to tell her own story – in her own words – by means of archival audio footage and rarely seen television appearances recorded throughout her political and humanitarian career.
The film, directed by Joy Davenport and produced and developed by Hamer’s niece, Monica Land, has had public screenings in Mississippi, Oregon and Texas. Currently in post-production, the film is slated for a public television broadcast in 2021. Major funding for the film was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Mississippi Humanities Council.