Hollywood Filmmaker to Work with Mississippi Students in Summer Workshop

APRIL 12, 2022 – CLEVELAND, MS - Organizers of the Sunflower County Film Academy are looking for students to participate in their free young filmmaker’s workshop scheduled for June in Cleveland. The five-week workshop (June 6 – July 8) will give up to 20 students the opportunity to make their own short movies and videos using production-grade equipment. Lunch and snacks will be provided, and students will be paid $500 at the end of the workshop.

Students work with the equipment during the young filmmaker’s workshop held in Indianola, MS in 2018.

Additionally, high school students who attend this year will have the privilege of working with Hollywood filmmaker, Stephanie Frederic, who will be among the three guest instructors.  

Frederic, a two-time Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist turned film and TV producer, has worked on several box office hits including, All Eyez On Me (The biopic of legendary rapper and poet Tupac Shukar); Girls Trip (starring Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Regina Hall, and Tiffany Haddish); American Gangster (starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Josh Brolin); and Shaft (starring Samuel L. Jackson and Method Man). 

Frederic is CEO and Chief Creative Officer of FGW Productions in Los Angeles but has deep roots in Magnolia in Pike County. Working with students in Mississippi, particularly students of color, is something Frederic has aspired to do for many years.   

"Young people inspire us.” Frederic said. “And FGW Productions believes in giving back and pouring into the next generation of creatives and filmmakers and we are looking forward to spending time this summer at the Sunflower County Film Academy." 

Frederic just completed filming Shirley, a biopic on the trailblazing political icon, Shirley Chisholm, starring Regina King and Terrence Howard.  

Previously funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (Delta State University), the Sunflower County Film Academy launched in 2018 and is part of the digital K-12 curriculum for the film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America. The film tells the story of Mississippi-sharecropper-turned-civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and premiered on PBS and WORLD Channel in February 2022. Frederic was a producer on the film. 

Producer, Stephanie Frederic (2nd from right) works with her crew during the filming of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America and an interview with Hamer’s daughter, Jacqueline (seated).

The academy is currently recruiting students from Cleveland, Bolivar County, Ruleville, Shaw and the surrounding areas. It will be held at Studio 230 Art Gallery in Cleveland. Prior workshops were held in Indianola and Sumner. 

The purpose of the workshop is to help students expand their knowledge of local history while documenting their research through film, and to interest more students of color in the Digital Media field. The deadline to apply is May 20, and applications can be completed online. At the end of the workshop, on July 8, students will share their class film with the community at a public screening at the art gallery. 

Instructors for the workshop are filmmakers Joy Davenport, Dr. Pablo Correa, and Ruleville-native RJ Fitzpatrick. 

“It’s an honor to be a part in something so great,” Fitzpatrick said. “Being a native of the area working in the arts, I am overjoyed because of the opportunities this project and others like it provide for students. Without this type of exposure, these students may not know the potential of the industry or the potential in themselves.” 

Filmmakers Chris Hastings, executive producer for WORLD Channel and creator of the award-winning series, America ReFramed, and Professor Ted Fisher, of Delta State University will also work with students as guest instructors. 

“Options are what we want students from the Mississippi Delta to have,” said Monica Land, administrator of the Sunflower County Film Academy. “We want them to consider broadcasting, journalism, or filmmaking as career choices. And this workshop prepares them for that. We also realize that some students may be torn between getting a summer job or doing something creative for the summer. And that’s why we pay them at the end of the program. But the point is, young people have a lot to say, and we want to encourage them to use this positive outlet for their creativity and energy.” 

About Fannie Lou Hamer’s America: Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is a multimodal project that preserves the legacy of the late civil rights icon and Sunflower County native. Hamer was influential in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and spearheaded several humanitarian aid efforts including a Freedom Farm and Pig Bank. Hamer also brought the first Head Start Program to Sunflower County in the early 1970s. Fannie Lou Hamer died at the age of 59 on March 14, 1977, from breast cancer and the after-effects of a brutal jailhouse beating by law enforcement officials in Winona, MS in 1963. The Sunflower County Film Academy continues Hamer’s mission of bringing educational opportunities to the historically underserved Mississippi Delta. Previous funders of the workshop also include the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Phil Hardin Foundation, C Spire, ATMOS Energy, HOPE Enterprises and Music Studio of Marin.