Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
I immediately dove into the research, sifting through my go-to reference books from the WPA & FSA writers and photographers who traveled the South documenting the Depression Era. Gifted artists like Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, John Vachon, Russell Lee and, my favorite, Eudora Welty. I also revisited the photographs of Bayard Wootten and the words of Evans' friend and co-worker, James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Eudora Welty holds a special place in my heart. I had the privilege of meeting her in 1998, while designing the film My Dog Skip near her home in Jackson, Mississippi. Eudora's writings and photographs have inspired several films that I've designed, capturing a similar time period. Given that, I had to bring her along with me for Mudbound and my return to the Delta. Her invaluable images allowed me to see the dwellings and environs of those who lived in this fertile land. It was her writing, however, that truly illustrated the people—the complex lives and challenges they faced, as well as their accomplishments and inequalities. Home Before Dark, a print of which hangs on my living room wall, was the cornerstone of my research. That said, it was Dee who offered up one of the most valuable pieces to study. Earnestine F.W. Smith, her maternal grandmother, born in Ferriday, LA, in 1925, put together a memoir of her family's history. The illustrated journal/scrapbook described the farm life of her ancestors in the Deep South, listing household items and including detailed descriptions of the rooms with their contents. I carefully read the journal, then read it again. Filled with this inspiration, I drove through Memphis two weeks prior to my official start date to put fresh eyes on the world where the beginning of Mudbound takes place. I scouted the neighborhoods (many of which I had considered for Walk the Line ten years earlier) where a young Henry and Laura McAllan might have begun their lives before moving their two young daughters to Mississippi. A grand ballroom in the Peabody Hotel was also revisited—the location was scripted as the site for a soirée for the returning World War II soldiers. Leaving Memphis, I drove with my two hounds (my traveling buddies) south through the Delta on a grey rainy afternoon photographing the flooded fields and acres of dirt and mud. The almost endless horizon and vast cloud-filled skies, coupled with the extreme sense A. Photo of Bomba and producer Sally Jo Effenson taken as the McAllan house is being prepared to move. B. The house being transported to its site for filming. C. Set decorator Ruby Guidara in the mud, dressing the house. B A C