New Fannie Lou Hamer Film Awarded $75k Grant From W.K. Kellogg Foundation
FEBRUARY 28, 2022 - JACKSON, MS - Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, a new and original documentary that honors one of the lesser-known proponents of the civil rights movement, received a $75,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The film covers Hamer’s rise from the cotton fields of Mississippi to becoming a leading voice for voting rights in the 1960s and 70s. Raised in the historically impoverished Mississippi Delta, Hamer was also a humanitarian providing educational opportunities, food programs, clothing, and housing to needy residents - regardless of their color.
The 90-minute film opened the 10th season of the award-winning series, America ReFramed on WORLD Channel on Feb. 24, 2022. But prior to that, it premiered on PBS worldwide on Feb. 22. Fannie Lou Hamer’s America uses rare audio and video footage that allows Hamer to tell her own story. All the songs heard in the film are sang by Hamer who used them to inspire and motivate others during the tumultuous 1960s. The Kellogg Foundation funding, awarded to the project’s fiscal sponsor, From The Heart Productions, was part of a $150,000 grant that helped to pay for that archival footage.
“Archival footage is tremendously expensive,” says the film’s executive producer Selena Lauterer. “And the documentary is almost entirely comprised of archival content — due largely to the fact we wanted the driving voice to be Mrs. Hamer’s, not talking heads telling us who she was. We wanted viewers to hear from her, in her own voice.”
The film was directed and edited by Joy Davenport and produced by Hamer’s niece, Monica Land. The researchers and consultants on the film were Fannie Lou Hamer authors and historians, Dr. Maegan Parker Brooks and Dr. Davis Houck.
The Kellogg Foundation previously supported the educational side of the project which includes: a K-12 curriculum which was piloted in Hamer’s hometown of Sunflower County; a driving tour of Hamer related sites; a children’s book; an animated movie from BrainPOP and a resource center dedicated to Hamer’s accomplishments.
At the suggestion of Jed Oppenheim, a Mississippi-based program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the curriculum also includes an annual young filmmaker’s workshop that teaches high school students from the Delta how to make their own movies using professional production equipment while preparing them for college and careers in the Digital Arts field. Students are also taught how to express themselves creatively and document their family history through their films.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was recognized for their generous support of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America in the film’s beginning and ending credits.
“At the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, our focus is on children and creating equitable conditions that enables them to thrive,” Oppenheim said. “We supported this important documentary about Mississippi and American icon Fannie Lou Hamer because her story sheds light on how we build a pathway to equity for our children. Her work in voting rights, health equity and access to high quality early childhood education and healthy, local foods continues to inform the work we fund and the approaches we take to a more equitable future.”
The film’s producers said the educational website, www.fannielouhamersamerica.com, is a continual resource that will help students and researchers in their quest to learn more about the late activist and humanitarian.
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