Deep South (1968)

[TheKongoEmpire]

The Deep South (1968) | richard-creasey

www.richardcreasey.net

The Deep South (1968)


Early on the morning of 5th June1968 jet lagged after my flight to New York, I switched on the black and white tv set in the corner of my (in those days) cheap and cheerful room at the Royalton Hotel on 44th Street.


The news was shattering. Robert Kennedy had been assassinated.



I flew to Memphis, hired a car and drove to Greenville, Mississippi to kick-start my first overseas job as a documentary researcher for Granada Television.



I’d got the job because I’d assured Mike Grigsby, an award winning documentary producer and Denis Forman, the MD of Granada, that I knew a Mississippi plantation owner who (fingers tightly crossed) would let us film on his land.



The best way to get a glimpse of my story of this shoot is to read the attached article written for the TV Times to coincide with the broadcast of what was planned to be a ‘ground breaking’ film because it was the first Granada TV documentary to be filmed in colour.

 

[TheKongoEmpire]

It's a great documentary that focuses on the life of sharecroppers. Reminds me of Chocó and Haiti they way the houses look and everyone chills outside. But the stark differences between the two worlds is hard to take. You can see the African beauty within the people especially in the church.