In keeping with a campus-wide environmental awareness effort at Delta State University called the “Year of Green,” the Delta State Special Programs Committee is hosting a screening of the thought-provoking documentary film, “Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio,” at 7:30 p.m., April 5, in the Recital Hall of the Bologna Performing Arts Center.
The film highlights a socially-responsible approach to the design and construction of structures in rural and impoverished areas. The event, which is part of the annual Arts in April celebration sponsored by the Special Programs committee, is also being supported by generous donations from the Crosstie Arts Council in Cleveland and the “Year of Green” programming fund at Delta State University.
As a part of the event, the film’s director, Mr. Sam Wainwright Douglas, will be on hand to discuss his production and hold a question and answer session following the screening. Accompanying Douglas will be Mr. Jake Fussell, a contributor to the soundtrack for the film, who will share insights on the benefits of folk music as soundtrack music for motion picture. He will also perform traditional Southern folk music prior to the start of the film.
The content of “Citizen Architect” is tied specifically to the work of architect-turned-teacher Samuel Mockbee who developed a radical educational design and build program at the School of Architecture at Auburn University, known as the “Rural Studio.” The film reveals that the Rural Studio is about more than architecture and building. Mockbee’s program provides students with an experience that forever inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities.
Sam Wainwright Douglas, an award winning filmmaker, is a graduate with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1998. He has been working in documentary film and television since March and April of 2005 after his documentary film on Air America radio was released by HBO. His work has also been featured on the BBC and RTE. Douglas has taught film and video editing in the Department of Radio Television Film at the University of Texas, and recently edited Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor, a film due out next year on musician/writer/raconteur Kinky Friedman and his independent run for governor of Texas in 2006. The film premiered at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival.
In “Citizen Architect,” Douglas shows how a group of students use their creativity, ingenuity and compassion to craft a home for their charismatic client, known to locals as Music Man (see photo), because of his zeal for old R&B and Soul records. Interviews with Mockbee’s peers and scenes with those he’s influenced infuse the film with a larger discussion of architecture’s role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change and citizenship.
A fifth-generation Mississippian, Mockbee (1944-2001) was born in Meridian. After graduating from the School of Architecture at Auburn in 1974, he returned to Mississippi in 1977 and established a reputation for outstanding design through the utilization of local materials. In 1991, he abandoned a full-time architectural practice with Coleman Coker and the firm Mockbee Coker Architects to accept a position at the Auburn University School of Architecture. It was there that he and long time friend and Auburn professor D.K. Ruth conceived of and founded the Rural Studio. In addition to Auburn, Mockbee taught at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia.
Mockbee’s efforts received attention from prominent media sources such as ABC’s Nightline, Oprah Winfrey, CNN, CBS, PBS, The New York Times Magazine, People, and countless architectural publications. He received the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2001, and, most notably, was also included as a MacArthur Foundation Genius that same year.
Musician Jake Fussell grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and began studying traditional music while accompanying his father, folklorist and writer Fred Fussell, on many documentary fieldwork projects throughout the South. While in his teens, Jake teamed up with two local old-time string bands and soaked up blues guitar technique from Georgia blueswoman Precious Bryant, with whom he has recorded and toured. He also learned from Alabama bluesman Albert Macon, the late Carolina Piedmont fingerpicker Etta Baker, and many others.
Now living in Oxford, Mississippi, Jake is currently enrolled in the Southern Studies graduate program at the University of Mississippi, where he is researching and writing about immigrant music in the South. He now plays guitar with Memphis gospel master Reverend John Wilkins in addition to traveling as a solo performer and writing music scores for documentary films.
Fussell will also make a presentation that day at noon for the First Tuesday brown-bag lecture series, sponsored by the Delta State Department of Art. He will discuss and play examples of Southern folk music that he has researched.
The public is invited to attend both events and admission is free. For more Information, call Dr. Mark Butler at 662-846-4606.
