Join us for the 15th Annual Clarksdale Film Festival & Music Festival

Schedule Of Events

11:00 AM : DUKE OF EARL - Official Sizzle - 9 minutes

Madcow Entertainment and Black 22 Productions present the official sizzle of the feature documentary DUKE OF EARL. (Presented by long-time Clarksdale Film & Music Festival filmmaker and volunteer Tim Hardiman.)

11:15 AM : BIG A - Live at FGCU Bower School of Music (film short) - 5 minutes

Snapshot of Clarksdale's Big A & Allstars performing at FGCU's Bower School of Music in Fort Myers, Florida (February 2024).

11:20 AM : VISIT CLARKSDALE - Tourism Videos -5 minutes

Clarksdale, Mississippi is more than just "Ground Zero for the Blues" and "The Crossroads of American Music," it is also hometown to generations of true blue Southern characters...

11:30 AM : AMERICAN MILEAGE - 71 minutes

Last year, we featured a preview. This year's we feature Tim Hardiman's new feature-length documentary about globe-trotting one-man band Cam Cole. Cole is a singer, songwriter, busker and new age traveler from London, UK who roams around performing on streets and venues as his one man band show influenced by Folk, Delta Blues, Grunge and Rock N' Roll.

12:50 PM : THE JAZZ LOFT According to W Eugene Smith - 88 minutes

Presented in coordination with director Sara Fishko. In 1950s Manhattan, a dingy loft building becomes the home and obsession of the brilliant photographer W. Eugene Smith – who leaves his family and moves there to live the artist’s life. Smith wires the building for sound and captures daily life at 821 Sixth Avenue, where jazz players gather all night, every night, for freewheeling jam sessions both hot and cool.

2:25 PM : THE BLUES UNDER THE SKIN - 88 minutes

In the early 1970s, director Roviros Manthoulis traveled to the Deep South to film interviews/performances by legends B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Mance Lipscomb, Bukka White, Robert Pete Williams & Roosevelt Sykes. Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, this film (virtually unseen in the U.S.) dramatizes the tumultuous relationship of a young couple as they struggle to overcome barriers of poverty and prejudice. "A thrilling rediscovery and untapped treasury of musical performances."

4:05 PM : IS THE THRILL GONE? An Exploration into Delta Blues Music Culture - 12 minutes

Clarksdale, Mississippi, is known for its fertile land and mouthwatering soul food. It's also known as a world-famous musical oasis - home to numerous musicians and creatives. This new film explores how blues music tells a story of turning trial and tribulations into truth and triumph.

4:30 PM : SILENT NO MORE: The Descendants of the Elaine Massacre - 25 minutes

Work-in-progress director's cut of forthcoming documentary about the descents of the Elaine Massacre in nearby Elaine, Arkansas, in 1919. A Cherry Street Production.

5:10 PM : THE BLUES ACCORDIN' TO LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS - 31 minutes

Legendary music film make Les Blank's best-known film is this beautiful 1968 classic! The great Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins is captured brilliantly in this deeply moving documentary. Blank reveals Lightnin’s inspiration, and features a generous helping of classic blues. The film includes performances at an outdoor barbeque and a black rodeo, and a visit to his boyhood town of Centerville, Texas.

6:00 PM : 'LIVE' BLUES by Andy Cohen

Enjoy the old-school, Pre-War acoustic blues stylings of singer/guitarist Andy Cohen - featured in the new Mississippi John Hurt documentary that follows his performance.

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