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The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 remains the biggest in American history. This mesmerising new doc from filmmaker Bill Morrison is created from hours of archive footage from 1927 and set to a score by jazz legend Bill Frisell.
Almost a century before Katrina, the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 is still the most destructive in American history. The river broke out of its banks in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles of towns and farmland. Part of the Flood’s enduring legacy was a mass exodus of destitute sharecroppers. This forced the ‘Great Migration’ of rural southerners to northern cities and saw the Delta Blues reborn as the Chicago Blues, R&B, and Rock and Roll.
This mesmerising documentary from filmmaker and multimedia artist Bill Morrison (Decasia, The Miner’s Hymns) is created from hours of richly textured archive footage from 1927. Minimal text and no commentary create a powerful portrait of this seminal moment in American history, with composer Bill Frisell’s evocative score adding an ominous modern resonance.