Mississippi town at heart of Sinners refused to be left out of the movie's success

The Mississippi town of Clarksdale is, in many ways, the heart and soul of the movie Sinners. 

But, until this week, its residents had no way to benefit from the film's massive success at the box office. In fact, many of them couldn't even see it, because the town doesn't have a movie theatre. 

That all changed when community members joined forces to organize a local screening of the film, featuring filmmaker Ryan Coogler and other members of the cast and crew.

"We had people from all over the world that came into Clarksdale to experience our culture," business owner Dave Houston, who helped organize the event, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. 

"It was a great thing for our city."

Sinners, a blues-infused vampire horror starring Michael B. Jordan and set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, has grossed $339 million US at the box office so far. 

It's set in Clarksdale, a town of roughly 14,000 people in the Mississippi Delta, an area widely known as the "birthplace of blues."

Jordan plays twin brothers hustling to open a juke joint where Black residents can eat, drink, gamble, and most of all, enjoy live music. But they face violent opposition from monstrous villains, both human and supernatural. 

"The juke joints still live on in Clarksdale as we speak," Houston said. "So to see that being on a big screen, man, it makes you feel great about your city."

But while Clarksdale is the soul of Sinners, the movie was filmed in neighbouring Louisiana, as Mississippi lacked the necessary infrastructure.

And when Sinners hit theatres, Clarksdale residents who wanted to see their town portrayed on screen had to drive more than 130 kilometres to the nearest cinema in Tennessee. 

"To use a likeness of Clarksdale and not acknowledge Clarksdale, that didn't sit well with me," said Brenda Luckett, a retired teacher, historian, and local tour guide.

As Sinners generated more and more buzz, Houston couldn't let this opportunity to shine a light on Clarksdale slip by. 

He teamed up with community organizer Tyler Yarbrough, who wrote an open letter and petition addressed to Coogler, Jordan and the rest of the film's cast and crew, inviting them to collaborate on a public screening of Sinners.