Fannie Lou Hamer’s America Wins IDA Best TV Doc Award
DECEMBER 16, 2022 – LOS ANGELES, CA - A film featuring civil rights activist and Mississippi Delta native, Fannie Lou Hamer, won the IDA Award for “Best TV Feature Documentary Or Mini-Series” in a ceremony last week. Produced by Hamer’s niece, Monica Land, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America was shot in the Delta and is told entirely in Hamer’s voice using her public speeches, interviews, powerful songs, and archival footage. The win was also historical as NPR Reporter Adolfo Guzman Lopez, who presented the award, said this was the first year that category was introduced by the IDA and honors programs made exclusively for broadcast and streaming at home.
Chris Hastings (l), Joy Davenport (c) and Selena Lauterer at the IDA Awards. More award photos.
Broadcast on PBS and WORLD Channel in February 2022, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is a unique and immersive portrait of the life and legacy of the Mississippi-sharecropper whose harrowing encounters with injustice propelled her into leadership in the fight for voting rights; as well as her many humanitarian efforts in the Delta including her Freedom Farm and pig bank.
The award was presented by the International Documentary Association at the 38th IDA Awards ceremony held at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, December 10, 2022. The IDA Documentary Awards is the world's most prestigious event dedicated to the documentary genre, celebrating the best nonfiction films and programs of the year. It seeks to represent excellence in the documentary field from around the world by emerging and established documentarians. The IDA Documentary Awards shortlists and nominees were selected by independent committees of 310 documentary makers, curators, critics and industry experts from 52 countries.
The ceremony was attended by Joy Davenport, who was presented an award as the director, editor and music composer of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, and executive producers, Selena Lauterer, and Chris Hastings who accepted the award on Land’s behalf.
“I really appreciate the IDA for their acknowledgement and for seeing what we saw, that my Aunt Fannie Lou’s story was simply remarkable and needed to be told. She needed to tell it,” Land said. “This wasn’t just my project. But it was touched by so many hands and so many hearts. And I’m grateful for everyone who helped us create this beautiful tribute to Aunt Fannie Lou.”
The film’s primary researchers were renown Fannie Lou Hamer historians and authors, Davis Houck and Maegan Parker Brooks. Brooks, an associate professor at Willamette University in Oregon, was on the committee that raised a statue to Hamer in her hometown of Ruleville in October 2012.
Researchers Davis Houck and Maegan Parker Brooks at a production meeting for the film in 2018.
"When Davis and I first started finding rare recordings of Mrs. Hamer's speeches--over a decade ago--we dreamed of a way to share them with the world. I could have never imagined such a beautiful tribute to Mrs. Hamer's life would result,” Brooks said. “I'm very grateful to have been a part of this project and I'm humbled that Mrs. Hamer's wise words have resonated with so many people."
Houck, the Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies at Florida State University said: “We are grateful for the amazing reception that Fannie Lou Hamer's America has received. To be a small part of this documentary that honors the life and legacy of Mrs. Hamer is a great honor. She left us so many treasures that our team has assembled into a powerful mosaic—that she narrates from beginning to end. May her light continue to shine.”
Land said it took 15 years to complete Fannie Lou Hamer’s America mainly because of the exorbitant costs of archival footage. But local organizations such as the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) have been consistent in their support.
“We are incredibly proud of what the Fannie Lou Hamer’s America project has achieved,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC. “They have taken one of our state’s most powerful stories, told by Mrs. Hamer herself, and brought it to the national audience that it so richly deserves.”
Brooks and Land at a production meeting for the film.
The Mississippi Humanities Council awarded the film its first grant in 2016 and several more for the film’s K-12 curriculum and post-production. They awarded the project the Preserver Of Mississippi Culture Award in March 2022.
Additional funding for Fannie Lou Hamer’s America was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Phil Hardin Foundation, Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, and the Mississippi Film Alliance. The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MDNHA) has funded the film and its K-12 curriculum, Find Your Voice.
“We are honored to congratulate the Fannie Lou Hamer’s America documentary film project on receiving this prestigious award,” said Dr. Rolando Herts, executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University. “This award signals the enduring global significance of Fannie Lou Hamer’s inspirational story. Mrs. Hamer is a Civil Rights icon from the Mississippi Delta, a region known as the birthplace of the Movement. It is because of Mrs. Hamer and numerous other Civil Rights leaders from the Delta that we are blessed to do the work that we are doing today.”
The film’s curriculum, Find Your Voice, was piloted in Sunflower County and written by Brooks, Houck, and several Delta educators. Another element of the curriculum, the Sunflower County Film Academy is a summer workshop that teaches Mississippi Delta High School students how to produce, shoot and edit their own films. The first workshop was held at Gentry High School in Indianola and the second in Sumner. A third is planned for Cleveland at the Delta Arts Alliance - Ellis Theatre in 2023.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is currently available on PBS Passport, Amazon, iTunes, and other streaming platforms.