
by Stephen McDill Published: April 12,2013
Tags: Crafting A Nation, Crossroads Film Festival, documentaries, film festivals, independent films, James Franco, Mississippi Film Office, Morgan Freeman, Sun N' Sand Music & Film Festival, The Help, Ward Emling
Look out Georgia and Louisiana. The Mississippi Film Office, the Mississippi Development Authority’s extended economic hand to Hollywood, is celebrating its 40th year of operations and many premier film festivals are ready for another summer of marketing the state to the inner echelons of the film industry. In the last two decades alone, producers, location [...] [...]
Mississippi native Florence Roach was honored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. with the Shining Star Award at its Centennial Kick-Off Hollywood Gala in Los Angeles. Roach was recognized for her performances on stage and on film. In 2011, she appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning movie “The Help.” She also appeared in Craig Brewer’s [...] [...]

The building housing one of the South’s oldest soda fountain drug stores was in danger of becoming vacant when the pharmacist owner sold Brent’s Drug Store to a chain in 2009, and the pharmacy part of the business was relocated. A local attorney and Fondren resident, Brad Reeves, who as a kid was taken by [...] [...]

It is only fitting that the Mayflower Café is particularly well known for its “comeback sauce.” That is because the café regarded as one of Jackson’s favorite seafood restaurant has been attracting back diners now for generations. “Many generations of hometown people have come through here,” said Mayflower Café owner Jerry Kountouris. “Parent brought their [...] [...]

by Amy McCullough Published: March 4,2012
Tags: Baptist Town, city planning, Greenwood, Howard-Johnson Streetscape Improvement Project, Mississippi State University, photography, The Help, Thomas Gregory, Turnrow Books, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Viking Range Corporation
Thomas Gregory, chief administrative officer, City of Greenwood Thomas Gregory is the chief administrative officer for the city of Greenwood and one of his home town’s biggest fans. Gregory earned an undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University in business administration and a master’s in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at [...] [...]

Myrlie Evers has returned to Alcorn State University as a distinguished scholar-in-residence. Widely known for her work on civil rights and racial justice throughout the United States and the world, Evers will spend her time at Alcorn engaged in offering seminars in the Department of Social Sciences, preparing her archival papers for library deposit and [...] [...]
Brent’s Drugs, a Fondren diner that started out as a pharmacy and soda fountain in 1946, is causing quite the local buzz with its several appearances in the box office hit movie “The Help” from Dreamsworks Entertainment. The movie, based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Jackson native Kathryn Stockett, tells the story [...] [...]
Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo: “On the bright side, The Help climbed to the top spot… while Rise of the Planet of the Apes took second. The Help eased 21 percent to an estimated $20.5 million, lifting its total to $71.8 million in 12 days. It marked the first time since early January that [...] [...]
CANTON- The film industry is no stranger to Mississippi with its list of popular movies from “A Time to Kill” and “My Dog Skip” to “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou” and “The Help.” Hollywood is looking forward to Mississippi’s new tax incentives and studio facility. Mississippians in turn are hoping the Magnolia State will follow [...] [...]

In the same way the best-selling Mississippi author Kathryn Stockett persevered through 60 rejections before getting her book “The Help” published, a band of folks responsible for bringing the movie of “The Help” to Mississippi wouldn’t take no for an answer. The DreamWorks Studios film, which had a $27-million budget and starred break-out actress Emma [...] [...]