A new documentary about the triumph of courage over despair in the Mississippi Delta is winning critical acclaim and proving no situation is too daunting to change, said Jason Coker, president of Together for Hope and a leading character in the film.
“It literally makes people believers that hope is possible and real,” Coker said about Rising Hope, a feature-length production directed by Theo Avgerinos.
The film relays the stories of Shaw, Miss., residents determined to overcome the crippling effects of mass unemployment and poverty resulting from NAFTA-related industry relocation, the defunding of public schools and state polices historically oppressive to Black Mississippians.
Rising Hope follows an aspiring college student, a youth minister and municipal and nonprofit leaders intent on creating economic and racial justice for themselves and their communities.
Jason Coker being interviewed for the film.
“The film is an interweaving of the personal narratives of people doing this incredible work in the face of terrible poverty and in the midst of this meat grinder of a landscape,” said Coker, a Baptist minister who grew up in Shaw and continues to live in the region. “You see them overcoming their circumstances with the persistent belief that things are not as they should be, and that they can be something different if they just put their hands to work.”
Rising Hope was a winner at the 2024 Oxford Film Festival where some audience members and jurists shared having positive emotional reactions to the film, Coker said. “We heard people sniffling all over the theater because it was so compelling. You’re rooting for the characters. That’s where it leads you because there is so much hope built into a film based in the Delta.”
And that hope is infectious, he added. “It’s almost like a conversion to see how people suffering in systems created to hold them in place start breaking out of those systems. It’s like they are freeing themselves from a noose.”
Roderious Phillips
Roderious Phillips said he has witnessed those transformations firsthand as one of the key subjects in the film.
“Not a lot of people know much about the Delta,” he explained. “Not a lot of people know what goes on in small towns in rural areas. But when they see people in this film moving forward despite systemic racism, it shows that change is possible and that there is hope out there.”
Phillips embodies that change. He was a teenager with a budding interest in photography when Avgerinos launched the five-year documentary project in 2017. Now 24, the Shaw native is a Mercer University graduate and professional photographer living in Macon, Ga.
A turning point came a couple of years into community college when Phillips was considering joining the military. Coker inspired him to continue pursuing his education and passion for photography.
Another boost came from being invited to participate in the multi-year documentary shoots for Rising Hope, he said.
“Everyone realized I was into photography and that I took it seriously, so I got to be involved with the camera crew. I would shadow the film crew and they said, ‘We think you should be on a camera. From there it just blossomed.”
Phillips said it amazes him to watch the film and track his own journey from abject poverty to the life he lives today.
“It was definitely from God. I grew up in church, singing every Sunday in the choir. So, I believe it was God telling me not to give up on this dream. And it’s inspiring how my life and other lives can make a big impact through this film.”
Witnessing the optimism and grit of Delta residents actually inspired the film, Avgerinos said.
Theo Avgerinos
An acclaimed director, producer and writer known for films such as Fifty Pills, Fishing for Love and The Cadillac Crew, Avgerinos first visited the area from Connecticut as part of a mission trip in 2000, then returned as a professional filmmaker in 2017.
“I wanted to pick up on this theme of folks doing helpful work in one of the country’s poorest regions,” he said. “That’s when I met Jason and connected the dots about people living in places of extraordinary pressure economically and historically but coming at it with a sense of genuine hope.”
Responses have been positive wherever the film has been screened, including Oxford, Miss., and venues in New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland.
Avgerinos said he is aiming for a fall release of the film, which also has been selected for the June 5-8 LightReel Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Despite its ongoing success and despite being one of the key characters in the film, Coker said he gets emotional every time he watches it.
“There are moments when I just cry, and I have seen it more than anybody but Theo. You’re rooting for the characters. There’s so much hope built into a film based in the Delta because if we can come out of the Delta with hope, we can do anything.”