Exclusive: Virgil Films has acquired 100 Years from Mississippi, a documentary portrait of Mamie Lang Kirkland, who died in 2020 at age 111 after a remarkable life.
Kirkland fled Ellisville, Ms, in 1915 at age seven with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. Hartfield returned to Mississippi four years later and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era. The act was witnessed by 10,000 spectators and memorialized on post cards.
One hundred years later, in 2015, Kirkland went back to Ellisville after vowing never to return. She did so at the urging of her son, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, who wanted to clarify stories about Hartfield and his family that he had heard since childhood. He directed the film.
Virgil, which made the acquisition deal with Kirkland and producer Gina Rugolo Judd, plans to release the film in February.
The film...
Kirkland fled Ellisville, Ms, in 1915 at age seven with her mother and siblings as her father and his friend, John Hartfield, escaped an approaching lynch mob. Hartfield returned to Mississippi four years later and was killed in one of the most horrific lynchings of the era. The act was witnessed by 10,000 spectators and memorialized on post cards.
One hundred years later, in 2015, Kirkland went back to Ellisville after vowing never to return. She did so at the urging of her son, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, who wanted to clarify stories about Hartfield and his family that he had heard since childhood. He directed the film.
Virgil, which made the acquisition deal with Kirkland and producer Gina Rugolo Judd, plans to release the film in February.
The film...
- 10/26/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
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