Neshoba is an award winning documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about events and attitudes in Neshoba County, Mississippi

Neshoba County, Mississippi

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 28,684 people, 10,694 households, and 7,742 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 people per square mile . There were 11,980 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...

, 40 years after the 1964 Mississippi civil rights workers murders.

Synopsis

Neshoba explores the history and changing racial attitudes of Neshoba County, Mississippi

Neshoba County, Mississippi

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 28,684 people, 10,694 households, and 7,742 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 people per square mile . There were 11,980 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...

 four decades after the murders of James Chaney

James Chaney

James Earl "J.E." Chaney , from Meridian, Mississippi, was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia...

, Andrew Goodman

Andrew Goodman

Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...

, and Michael Schwerner

Michael Schwerner

Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...

 during Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...

. The film captures the trial of Edgar Ray Killen

Edgar Ray Killen

Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen is a former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired in the murders of three civil rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—in 1964....

, who granted the filmmakers "extraordinary access".

Awards

• Best Documentary - 2008 Boston Film Festival
  Boston Film Festival
  Boston Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September....
  
  
• Best Political Documentary & Best Directors - 2008 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival
  New York International Independent Film and Video Festival
  New York International Independent Film and Video Festival is a film screening event in various American cities. It was founded in 1993, and its website claims it has been recognized by the film and entertainment industry as one of the leading film events on the independent festival circuit...
  
  
• Best Documentary - 2008 Indie Memphis Film Festival
• Best Documentary - 2008 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival
• Best Mississippi Film Oxford Film Festival

Reception

Though critical of certain production elements, Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

praised Neshoba as "a disturbing peek at how little some people have changed, as well as an inspiring portrait of others' determination to see crime punished at last".

External links

• Neshoba official film website