Freedom Summer

Description

Stanley Nelson’s follow up to his Emmy-winning documentary Freedom Riders (2010) powerfully captures the incendiary events of the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, the nation’s most segregated state at that time. Through the use of rare archival footage, as well as incisive commentary from several participants from all sides of the conflict, Nelson documents the subsequent formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and national rise of the Civil Rights movement. It was a period of history where voting rights organizations and hundreds of young volunteers, both black and white, worked tirelessly to register African-Americans in Mississippi districts. Other significant strides are examined, including the establishment of Freedom Schools and Freedom Houses to educate and aid the local African American populations. Penetrating a complicated minefield of social unrest, Freedom Summer shines a light on the many heroes of the movement, including Robert Moses and Fannie Lou Hamer, while documenting widely noted events of that time: the Ku Klux Klan murders of James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner in Meridian, MS; the 1964 Democratic National Convention; and the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Freedom Summer provides poignant testimony for an imperative moment in our nation’s history. –Leah LoSchiavo

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/88926437?autoplay=1

Film Details