vernon film society
Bringing the best in world and Canadian film to film lovers of Vernon and the North Okanagan
PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI
Director: Paul Saltzman
With: Morgan Freeman
Run Time: 90 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Language: English
Rating: Not rated
“They have separate proms and they have separate homecoming
queens, one white and one black. I said, ‘How stupid
can that be.’” – Morgan Freeman
We are very fortunate to live in a society where the idea of a racially segregated prom is preposterous. Sadly, the notion was quite a comfortable one in Charleston, Mississippi, until extremely recently. In 2008, that tradition changed, and Paul Saltzman was there to capture it in the compelling Prom Night in Mississippi, which premiered at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Charleston is a very small town, and while black and white students have been going to school together since 1970 (years after desegregration first took effect), their proms have always been separate. Actor Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Million Dollar Baby), who grew up in Charleston, had long felt that the segregated prom situation had to change, and in 1997 he offered to pay for the entire prom if it was integrated. But the idea had too many opponents, so it was put on hold until 2008, when Freeman returned and made the offer again. This time the school accepted.
As Freeman points out, the students themselves seemed to have little problem with an integrated prom – in fact, most embraced it. The main resistance was an older generation fixed on old ways. As the film illustrates, the younger generation is very much ready to endow the future with its own, more progressive beliefs.
Saltzman interviews several students (including the high school’s one interracial couple), teachers and parents, and allows viewers access to the very scaled-down white-only prom, as well as the integrated prom itself. Tensions, excitement and the broader social context are all explored in an engaging manner, and it is truly exhilarating to see the entire town come together around an event so clearly vital to the concept of social progress.
“Totally inspiring.” – Susan G. Cole, Now Magazine
Reviews: www.mrqe.com/movies/m100083509?s=1
Official Site: www.promnightinmississippi.com
