Segregated Proms Are Getting More Play with Jennifer Aniston
Filed under: Drama, Deals, Scripts
It looks like there's a push to reveal the lingering strings of segregation in Mississippi. From HotDocs, I shared word of Prom Night in Mississippi, a great documentary covering Morgan Freeman's attempt to stop the segregated proms in his hometown. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that Screen Gems is getting ready for a similar account called Holler, which was written by Dana Adam Shapiro, and will be produced by Jennifer Aniston's Echo Films.Said to be based on true events, the film will follow a bi-racial student who heads back to his Mississippi hometown with his mother. He falls for a white girl, and is shocked when he learns that she can't be his prom date due to lingering segregation. "He soon finds himself the catalyst for change for not only the prom but for the school and entire town." I wonder if he calls up Freeman for help?
Shapiro is the director of the Oscar-nominated Murderball, as well as the environmental short My Biodegradable Heart, so this should mix the romance and drama with a decent amount of social conscience. (It could also have some quirk, if The Every Boy is any indication.) This probably won't kick any segregation-lovers into the 21st century, but at least it gets the story out there. In the meantime, you can check out Prom Night in Mississippi on HBO.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2009 @ 9:45PM
Christian M. Howell said...
That's a little too depressing for me. What does it say about us as Americans? How can we be the leader of the Free World when we barely allow freedom?
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7-23-2009 @ 10:16PM
Saddays said...
Unfortunately Mississippi is centuries behind the rest of the world. Even caucasians who drive through Mississippi notice that it's still stuck in the 50's, and don't like to drive through there. And the people that move away refuse to go back. It's an extremely sad state.
8-03-2009 @ 6:53AM
AaronB said...
I live in Mississippi, and at our prom, it was NOT segregated. This documentary is as flawed as a Micheal Moore film. The ONLY prom in MS that IS segregated is so because the STUDENTS chose that....and primarily the BLACK STUDENTS. I loathe the fact that liberal idiots feel they have a right to come into my state, hear a blurb of a story and run with it as fact. The fact is, parents of black students requested a seperate prom because a majority of the black students did not want to go to the regular prom because it was all about WHITE people. So, the blacks created the racism because they didn't want to have fun with other students. This is just stupid and narrow-minded.
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9-17-2009 @ 4:56PM
Revered Jim said...
and whats wrong with being back in the 1950s. No metal detectors at schools, no racial violence in our now wonderfully integrated schools, no aids or STDs. respect for teachers and other students. Wish I could turn back the clock, we live in such a wonderful age now right?
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