Check out Capital B’s Beyond ‘Sinners’: The Stories of Clarksdale, Mississippi, a yearlong project highlighting Black residents reclaiming power and ownership in an area where Blues tourism and development have long excluded them.
A decade after the #OscarsSoWhite movement, a Black director’s film has gotten the most nominations ever in the Academy Award’s nearly 100-year history.
On Thursday, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners received 16 nominations. And Ruth E. Carter, who worked as costume designer on the film, is now the most nominated Black woman in Oscars history. This comes nearly two weeks after winning the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Golden Globes.
Despite the online debates about whether the film was snubbed or whether it was worth the “hype,” one thing is clear: Its historical impact is undeniable.
The box office hit is rooted in Clarksdale, Mississippi, known as the birthplace of blues music, and follows the Smoke Stack twins and their re-migration to the rural Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint.
Across the rural South, only a few juke joints remain — whether it’s Teddy’s in Louisiana or Wild Bill’s in Tennessee. For many places, integration and migration to larger cities, urban renewal programs, and gentrification contributed to the demise of juke joints. The owners of such places, specifically in the Delta, have passed away, leading to closures. Some argue that these factors, in addition to the push for blues tourism by Mississippi’s leaders, have paved the way for commodification of its culture by white people.
The film is unapologetically rooted in Black culture, from an overwhelmingly Black cast to a diverse production and design crew. And while it’s too soon to celebrate 16 wins, the film’s significance is paramount 11 years after the #OscarsSoWhite, a movement created by April Reign in response to the lack of diversity of Oscars nominees.
A month after the film’s debut in theaters, Coogler, Warner Bros. executives, and cast and crew visited Clarksdale and hosted several screenings across a three-day festival. This effort came after Tyler Yarbrough, a local organizer in Clarksdale, penned an open letter to invite them to “walk the streets your vision reimagined, to meet the people whose real stories echo through every frame, and to experience firsthand the living, breathing legacy that inspired your work and the people who are sustaining and reimagining its future.” The events — created by Mississippi residents — resulted in Clarksdale Culture Capital, the cultural engine to help revitalize the Delta.
Following the first screening, Capital B hosted a conversation with Coogler; Ludwig Göransson, the film’s composer; actor Miles Caton; Sev Ohanian, producer and co-founder of Proximity Media; along with blues artists from the film. The Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Capital B: Ryan, you could’ve based the film anywhere else. Why Clarksdale? You have ties to Mississippi through your Uncle James, but beyond your Mississippi connection, what makes this place special?
Ryan Coogler: I would say I just did a lot of research about the state of Mississippi. I kind of zeroed in on the Delta blues style of music and in the era where it was intensely popular in the Black community, but it hadn’t gotten the nationwide notoriety yet. I wanted it to be set in a town that would ring bells for people. … and Clarksdale was kind of perfect for all of these things. It’s kind of like the cultural capital of the Delta blues as a concept.
There’s one thing about reading about Clarksdale in a book, but then Ludwig and I came down after we finished the first draft of the screenplay, and got to spend time with Boo Mitchell [Grammy-award winning producer and owner of Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee]. We flew into Memphis, and then he took us across the state line, and it put everything together for me. I was kind of fascinated by its history, and when I actually got here, I realized that I made the right creative choice. For folks who are followers of this type of music and the culture, as soon as they hear Clarksdale, it has an association with the metaphysical and the supernatural. I think from the Robert Johnson story, Son House, and all the lyrics of the Delta Blues — that myth of the crossroads. I think that kind of like will help open folks’ minds up to all the metaphysical stuff that’s gonna happen in the movie, the vampires and the griots, and all of the magic that comes with it.
One question a lot of people have been asking is if it’s inspired and based in Mississippi, why wasn’t it filmed in Mississippi? And I understand that there were some challenges and some constraints in trying to do that. Can you just talk a little bit about that?
Coogler: I wish we could have filmed it here. It came down to two things. Number one, just tax credits. It was a big movie, big actors, big budget, and tax credits mean a lot when you’re in that situation. We came to check in with Mississippi [and] that tax credit had been maxed out.
The other piece is just infrastructure. A lot of the film takes place in stages that we built, and we needed places that had some sound stages that could fit a juke joint … and the crew base. So, Louisiana fit that, unfortunately, but we worked really hard to try to make sure that we got it right.
Ludwig, I’d love to come to you. There were so many musicians who graced the soundtrack: Clarksdale’s own Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and James “Super Chikan” Johnson. Can you talk a little bit about how your team picked the musicians to be a part of this project, and also, how did their perspective guide the tone of the film?
Ludwig Göransson: Music is such a big part of this story, right? And even though we shot it in Louisiana, when you see Clarksdale there on the sign at the train station, all the musicians there are from Clarksdale. We really wanted to make sure that we kept that authenticity with having real loose positions and not just on screen, but also everywhere — on the score and all the songs. There’s a crucial moment where Mary and Stack are having an argument, and during that moment was a very emotional moment, and you see her crying to the guitar tones of Kingfish. There’s something magical about that. I just feel so very grateful that we were able to make that happen.
There’re so many creators in this room — from writers, directors, composers, musicians — who don’t have access to the resources to tell their story. Any advice for them?
Sev Ohanian: Just to add three more actionable things. Number one is education. Number two is networking. Number three is capitalizing. Education does not have to be film school. There’s no shortage of ways to self-educate yourselves — YouTube videos, books, [and] events like today. I think networking — as evidenced by this group here — it’s working laterally. People next to you, people who are in your community group, in your space.
And lastly, I think capitalizing is a big deal. You guys have to capitalize on what you have. It’s less about what you don’t have, what access you don’t have. Find ways to capitalize on that. Tell your story. And honestly, I think the whole world is watching right now. This movie has brought a lot of attention.