NOTE: due to the threat of extreme winter weather, the 16th Annual Clarksdale Film, and Music Festival has been postponed to Jan. 30-Feb. 1. This article has been updated to reflect this change.
The Clarksdale Film and Music Festival returns for its 16th installment at the Stone Pony Tack Room Jan. 30-Feb. 1 with a stacked program of films.
“It’s a curated collection of music documentaries and Mississippi movies with live blues performances and a lot of special guests,” said festival director Roger Stolle. “It’s not free but darn near – $5 a day or a $10 weekend pass.”
Highlights include a feature about artist/photographer/musician Bill Steber from renowned blues documentarian Robert Mugge; Ronzo, a feature tribute to the titular late “unofficial cultural ambassador” of Oxford; Natchez, the most buzzed-about documentary about Mississippi culture of recent years; and much more.
Deep Roots: The Art and Music of Bill Steber & Friends (Jan. 30, 2 p.m.) was directed by filmmaker Robert Mugge and works as a companion piece to his landmark 1991 blues documentary Deep Blues, which screened at a previous festival.
Steber, the film’s subject, will also be in attendance. He is a Tennessee-based artist who has documented the blues and culture in the Mississippi Delta through his photography for over 20 years. He is also an accomplished musician performing with acts The Jake Leg Stompers, The Hoodoo Men and more.
An exhibit of Steber’s work titled Deep Roots: Evocations of the Mississippi Blues will open at Greenwood’s Museum of the Mississippi Delta with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 22. It’s worth the hour’s drive from Clarksdale for festivalgoers to see his work up close.
Ronzo: Cultural Ambassador to the South (Jan. 30, 7 p.m.) is a heartfelt portrait of theater operator, political candidate, performer and heartbeat of the arts culture in Oxford, Ron Shapiro, who died in 2019 at the age of 75. He owned and operated the city’s beloved Hoka Theatre from 1976-1996. Director Jon Brick will be in attendance for the screening.
“Ronzo was a true local character,” Stolle said.
Natchez (Jan 30, 4:30 p.m.) comes to the festival with a bevy of accolades in tow: Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival as well as three other major festivals, and recognition as one of the top five documentaries of the year by The National Board of Review. This feature is an unfiltered contemporary portrait of the Mississippi river town and its struggles maintaining its world-renowned antebellum-era tourism in the modern era.
While the film may not seem like the festival’s usual fare, Stolle said: “It’s a beautiful film and it’s about Mississippi, and it’s of particular interest here locally because of the tourism angle.”
Another major highlight of the festival is the closing screening, An Evening with Robert Gordon: Films and Stories (Jan. 31, 2:30 p.m.) Gordon, an Emmy- and Grammy-winning writer/filmmaker from Memphis, will appear in person to share clips from his past projects like Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story andMuddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied as well as preview his upcoming film Newport & the Great Folk Dream, about the legendary folk music festival established in 1959.
There’s plenty more for blues fans – other screenings include King of Them All: The Story of King Records (Jan. 31, 1:10 p.m.), a portrait of the influential Cincinnati record label; Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone but Me (Jan. 31, 7 p.m.), a feature documentary about the life of the Alabama-born blues vocalist perhaps best known for the original “Hound Dog” that Elvis took to #1 on the charts; Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted (Jan. 31, 4:20 p.m.) an inventive feature documentary that’s as unconventional as its subject – soul music cult figure Jerry Williams, aka Swamp Dogg; and Blues Like Showers of Rain (Jan. 31, 12:30 p.m.), a classic 1970 short featuring a host of gone-but-not-forgotten blues musicians.
You can also catch live performances by some of the best local and contemporary blues performers. Duck Hill’s Little Willie Farmer entertains at a 6 p.m. reception Friday, while Terry “Big T” Williams rocks the house Saturday. Then the festivities move to the Bluesberry Café Sunday afternoon to close out the festival with performances by Lucious Spiller, Sean “Bad” Apple and Watermelon Slim starting at 1 p.m.
For more information about the festival, visit clarksdalefilmfestival.com.
