Directed by Bill Morrison • Documentary • 2013 • 80 minutes
The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in American history. In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its earthen embankments in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles. Part of its legacy was the forced exodus of displaced sharecroppers, who left plantation life and migrated to Northern cities, adapting to an industrial society with its own set of challenges.
Musically, the Great Migration fueled the evolution of acoustic blues to electric blues bands that thrived in cities like Memphis, Detroit and Chicago becoming the wellspring for R&B and rock as well as developing jazz styles.
THE GREAT FLOOD is a collaboration between filmmaker and multimedia artist Bill Morrison and guitarist and composer Bill Frisell inspired by the 1927 catastrophe.
"Critic's Pick! Visual poetry, sublime"—The New York Times
"A knockout!—Kenneth Turan, LA Times
"Archival wizard Bill Morrison's film finds lyricism in disaster"—The Wall Street Journal
Directed by Melissa Young & Mark Dworkin • Documentary • 2012 • 70 minutes
SHIFT CHANGE: PUTTING DEMOCRACY TO WORK tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that compete successfully in today's economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.
Among...
Directed by Andy Wells • Documentary • 2016 • 59 minutes
Each year, we give thousands of tons of our unwanted clothes to charity. But where do they actually go? It turns out most are exported to Africa. And even though we have given them away for free, our castoffs have created a multimillion-do...
Directed by Mark Dworkin & Melissa Young • Documentary • 2012 • 52 minutes
Fifty years ago Detroit was booming with two million hard-working people living the American Dream. Then the auto industry crashed and so did the Motor City. Most moved away; whole neighborhoods turned into wastelands...
