Summer in Mississippi

*Summer in Mississippi*
Summer in Mississippi
Written by	Beryl Fox
Directed by	Beryl Fox
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
Production
Executive producer	Douglas Leiterman
Producer	Beryl Fox
Cinematography	Richard Leiterman; John Foster; Grahame Woods
Editor	Don Haig
Running time	27 minutes
Production company	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Original release
Network	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Release	1965

Summer in Mississippi is a 1965 Canadian cinéma-vérité documentary short from Beryl Fox, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and first shown on This Hour Has Seven Days.^[1] It won the award for Best Film, TV Information, at the 17th Canadian Film Awards.

Synopsis

Director Beryl Fox traveled to Mississippi after the bodies of the three civil rights workers working for the Congress of Racial Equality and Freedom Summer project were found on August 4, 1964. Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were killed while attempting to register black Americans in Mississippi to vote; their deaths are now known as the Mississippi Burning Murders.

Fox's objective was not to follow the murder trail, but to examine the difficulties faced by new student volunteers heading to Mississippi and the region's frenzied social climate. The film, characteristic of the developing CBC documentary style of the period, paints a vivid picture of a time when the summer heat reflected the inflamed emotions of an entire state.^[2]

Legacy

After watching Summer in Mississippi, Canadian filmmaker David Ridgen was inspired to make Return to Mississippi (2004), also for the CBC.^[3] During its production, he learned of the 1964 Ku Klux Klan murders of two 19-year-old African-American men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. This led him to produce his next film, Mississippi Cold Case,^[4] a documentary so compelling it led Mississippi state officials to re-open their investigation into the case, which resulted in Klansman James Ford Seale being convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping and handed three concurrent life sentences.^[5]^[6]

References

^ Fox, Beryl (October 1964). "Summer in Mississippi". CBC Times (15): 17.
^ "Summer in Mississippi". cfe.tiff.net. Canadian Film Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
^ "Watch Summer in Mississippi". cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
^ "Mississippi Cold Case". Davidridgen.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Associated, The (September 25, 2005). "Reported as Dead, Suspect in '64 Killings Turns Up Alive – New York Times". The New York Times. Mississippi. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ "Brother Wins Arrest in '64 Case". The Washington Post. January 26, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2011.